Author: Shivanath Jha
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: June 18, 2002
The Government has identified 65
centres in nine states in the country where Pakistan's ISI has established
a formidable network and is pumping about Rs 75 lakh per month - a separate
package for the Jammu and Kashmir militants which ranges between Rs 1.25
crore to 1.60 crore per month -to small militant groups and organisations
for their operation in India.
Besides informers of lower strata,
about 10,000 strong ISI armed men have taken shelter in all the nine states
including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand,
West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and allegedly indulge in the smuggling
of arms and ammunitions, foreign currency, contraband goods, narcotics
and hawala.
Revealing this, a recent report
on the operations of the ISI and its funding of militant organisations
- prepared after the Geelani episode - states: "Atleast nine major organisations
and about 27 small groups are working for the ISI in the country. Besides
receiving funds from the ISI, the small groups also get financial assistance
from over a dozen US, UK, Malaysia, UAE and Pakistan-based organisations
through hawala channels."
Estimating that "since 1995, over
Rs 60 crores was funded by the ISI and about Rs 36 crores by other organisations
based abroad for militancy and extremism in India," highly-placed sources
in the home ministry said that in Uttar Pradesh, the ISI has established
formidable networks in places like Muzaffarnagar, Shaharanpur, Bijnor,
Morada, Bareily, Kanpur, Varanasi, and Kolkata, Mushidabad, Dinajpour and
Siliguri in West Bengal.
In Bihar and Jharkhand, the ministry
has listed Siwan, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Purnea, Kishanganj, Katihar, Gaya,
Hazaribagh, Giridih, Patna, Sitamarhi and Jamshedpur as major ISI-prone
areas.
According to report, two districts
- Mumbai and Thane - have been identified in Maharashtra followed by three
each in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu - Ahmedabad, Suarastra and Kutch, Coimbatore,
Trichy and Madurai and one each in Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad - and Kerala
- Thiruananthapuram. During the past three years, the ISI has also expanded
in Bangalore, sources said, adding that "these centres also act as support
bases for primary logistics."
