The CIA is in the process of obtaining more data about the hideouts and terrorist training camps of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan from Indian intelligence agencies.
India has already provided the CIA with some maps carrying locations of training camps. It has also provided valuable information on the activities of the Taliban militia.
India has been gathering intelligence on Osama bin Laden and his activities for the past decade. In fact, bin Laden is referred to as 'Usman Bin Lado' in the Indian intelligence dossiers. “He has been to this country on a number of occasions. The last visit was in February 1998, before the Coimbatore blasts' a senior intelligence official stated. “The U.S. has a strong intelligence network and they can help us update our information on the Taliban”. India has so far provided the CIA with whatever information it has on Bin Laden. “We have also provided them with maps of his training camps in Afghanistan,” a senior police official said.
India has always been in touch with the CIA for information on fundamentalist groups indulging in subversive activities in this country. It was the CIA which helped the Mumbai police nab four associates of the hijackers of IC-814 in December 1999.
“The U.S. intelligence agency has a strong information network. They have powerful satellites and state- of-the-art technology. But they would need our assistance in human intelligence,” an official stated. In the past, the Indian police has arrested several terrorists, who have been trained by the Taliban. “The arrested persons have provided us with an insight into the working of the Taliban and various training camps. This information can be of help to the U.S.,” the official said.
According to Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports, there are 25 training camps in Afghanistan. “Those enrolled at the camps are trained in war logistics and use of sophisticated firearms for a period of three years,” a crime branch officer stated. “It is hardcore training and involves no theory. The trained militants are then sent to India across the border to carry out subversive activities.”
In 1998, when the U.S. had rocketed Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks in East Africa, two of the camps struck, housed terrorists trained to go to Kashmir.
There is the fear that several persons owing allegiance to Bin Laden are hiding in India. “We have reports of some of them posing as students and staying in India;' a source from IB said.
According to intelligence, reports, Bin Laden has a variety of trainers at his camps. It includes Afghans, Saudi Mujahuddin and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group. “He has a force of about 35,000 persons and has about $250 million at his disposal,” the IB source stated.
Bin Laden considers India his enemy.
Said a senior officer: “About two years ago, bin Laden, in a statement
from the Afghan town Jalalabad declared that “our biggest enemies are the
U.S. and India and we should target them using the best of our efforts.”
Ms statement was also published in some Indian and foreign newspapers.”