Terrorist training camps may be closer to home than the distant mountains in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Police officials have learnt that a forest area near Udaipur, Rajasthan, was till recently being used to train would-be-terrorists in the use of firearms.
Sources said that this could well be the first time that a terrorist camp used by self-proclaimed jehadis, or holy warriors, has been detected inside India.
The details of the camp, which was being run in a wooded area known as Salumber, have been passed to central intelligence agencies and is also being shared with American intelligence agencies, including the FBI.
Investigations show that the camp was being run by part of the same network, part of which was allegedly planning to carry out explosions in the U.S. embassy in Delhi.
A confidential report states that some of the accused revealed that they had established bases in Rajasthan. This was convenient for the accused, as their prime operative, Abdel Raouf Hawash, had' spent several years in Rajasthan as a student.
The report states that about two years back Hawash and his accomplice, Mohammed Shamim, visited Salumber. Here they met about 20 youth who were being taught the use of small arms and double barrel guns. The youth reportedly told Hawash that they were preparing for a jehad.
The existence of the camp and the fact that likes of Hawash, who are allegedly working for Osama bin Laden through intermediaries, is of vital importance for intelligence agencies, said sources. Not only does it prove that the terrorist network is much more vast than thought earlier, it also establishes a link between bin Laden and terrorism in India.
Given the sensitivity of the matter, investigation details have been kept a well guarded secret. Sources said that investigators have spent the last few months trying to establish who was running the camp and where were the men who were being trained. They art also trying to establish the operation for which these people were being trained.
Sources said that the attack on the U.S. embassy was not the only task Hawash was entrusted with. He is an active member of the Sudanese student body, Islamic Movement of Sudanese Students which has its headquarters in Pune. Hawash had been asked to keep an eye on rival Sudanese youth organisation, specially one comprising Christian students from southern Sudan.
Hawash was also reportedly being
given help and guidance by an intelligence officer. The officer, who is
said to be of the rank of a brigadier, had been sent to India as the first
secretary in an African embassy. But investigators say that the officer
was not the only diplomat to be extending help to the terrorists.