Militant training camps still run in Pakistan

Contrary to Islamabad's claims, training camps of various militant groups continue to be run in different parts of Pakistan with militants attempting to infiltrate into India through Line of Control, says the cover story of Herald magazine.

In The Waiting Game, the magazine said Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militant group Hizbul Mujahideen has one of its training camps in Hisari near Garhi Habibullaj in North-West Frontier Province, where 250 militants were being trained.

This has been written by a correspondent of the magazine who visited the camp.

A few months back, Herald had published details of how the training camps, which were closed earlier, were being reopened in places like Manshera in NWFP.

It said apparently more than a thousand trained militants from Jammu and Kashmir were currently in three camps in Hazara region of the Frontier province alone.

Of these, Hisari and Batrasi camps were located in the Mansehra district while the third camp was in Boi district in Abbottabad, the report said.

Thousands of other militants were stationed in camps run by half a dozen small Kashmiri groups or predominantly Pakistani outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkatul Muzahideen and al-Badar Mujahideen, the report said.

Unlike in the past when the Hisari camp bustled with 'verve', the mood is one of 'lethargy and disorientation', which the members of the camp attributed to lack of funding from Pakistan, it said.

The Pakistanis cut off their budget and there was little hope of seeing action in Jammu and Kashmir for which they were originally trained, the magazine said, quoting one of the inmates.

While many camps were folded up and militants shifted to different locations due to international pressure, the camps were 'restored' in the areas a year later, he said.

According to the magazine, smaller groups received funding from Pakistan intelligence agencies, in the range of Rs 4 to Rs 7 lakh a month, while bigger groups got Rs 2 to 3 million a month.

Apart from money, they got communication equipment, weapons, explosives, trekking equipment and food for thousands of militants, guides and porters to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir.

Much of the funding has been drastically reduced in recent months, it said.