Author: B L Kak
Publication: www.dailyexcelsior.com
Date: July 14, 2000
NEW DELHI, July 13: The
authorities have just received a highly sensational report about the on-going
exercise at Peshawar in Pakistan aimed at imparting training to groups
of Kashmir-bound terrorists in use of napalm.
Equally sensational is
the report, which suggests the "possibility" of some battle-hardened jehadis
making use of shoulder-held missiles or anti-aircraft guns against Indian
helicopters in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan was reported
to have informed Washington last month about measures to "wind up" an unspecified
number of training camps for militants and terrorists. In fact, one
report specifically talked about the shifting of at least 15 such centres
from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
But India's Military
Intelligence (MI) has reportedly gathered evidence with regard to the setting
up of more training camps across the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K,
particularly in the Lipa Valley. Pakistan-occupied Lipa Valley has
already been converted into a big military formation.
The MI as well as the
counter-intelligence wing of the J&K CID have evidence to suggest that
there is "no sign" of the training camps in Pakistan being closed down
or pushed back from the Line of Control. At least 20 new camps are
reported to have been established across the J&K border. Lipa
Valley alone accounts for more than a dozen training camps.
Another area of tremendous
importance for the ruling establishment in Islamabad is infiltration of
armed militants, mercenaries and subversives into Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pak military establishment is keen on continuing its support to the
jehadis in Kashmir. If there was any doubt about it, it was set at
rest by the military ruler himself.
Gen Parvez Musharraf
has, once again, defended groups such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
The New York Times Magazine has quoted him as having said in an interview:
"These people are not terrorists, they are fighting a jehad. There
is no question that terrorism and jehad are absolutely different.
You in the West are allergic to the term jehad but jehad is a tolerant
concept".
Gen Musharraf, despite
the warning from the US Under Secretary of State, Mr Thomas Pickering,
has chosen to be lenient towards Masood Azhar, the cleric released from
the Jammu jail in the IC 814 hostages-for-prisoners swap, even after the
latter's meetings in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief,
Mullah Omar. The cat was out of the bag when Pakistani magazine Newsline
reported last month that Masood Azhar met Osama and Mullah Omar to secure
their continued support in the Kashmir issue as well as their backing for
his anti-India outfit, known as Jaish-e-Mohammadi.
Meanwhile, according
to estimates of J&K State intelligence, Military Intelligence and Intelligence
Bureau (IB), infiltration from across the LoC and International Border
in Jammu and Kashmir has declined in the first five months during the current
year. During this period, not more than 430 terrorists entered J&K.
The figure during the first five months of 1999 was 824.
Tactical decisions by
Indian authorities in close collaboration with the Farooq Abdullah Government,
some officials point out, has led to the decline in trans-border infiltration.
EXCELSIOR was officially told that there had been a sharp decrease within
Kashmir valley. This phenomenon was attributed to the deployment
of two additional brigades in counter-infiltration positions along the
LoC.
The Army Headquarters
has praised the role of 16 Corps, headquartered at Udhampur. It is
officially reckoned that troops under the command of this Corps have done
well, along with paramilitary personnel and Special Operation Groups of
J&K Police, while dealing with Pakistan-aided ultras. As many
as 276 terrorists have been killed in Jammu. The 16 Corps has plans
to thrust deep to knock out terrorists in the inaccessible and forest areas
of the Jammu division.