In a damning revelation, a former top Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front militant has said that Pakistan Information
Minister Sheikh Rashid's mansion in Rawalpindi was used as a 'guesthouse' and for 'arms storage' for Kashmiri militant recruits between 1987 and 1992.
Abdul Ahad Waza, one of the first Kashmiris to go across the Line of Control for militancy training, has also mentioned the involvement of the Pakistani establishment in starting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir by saying that the then Pakistani military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with him for recruiting Kashmiris.
Substantiating what JKLF chief Yaseen Malik had said in Pakistan, Waza told the Jammu-based Daily Excelsior newspaper that Rashid's mansion functioned as a 'transit camp' for JKLF militants and it was guarded by 'men
of the Pakistani army in civvies'.
JKLF trainees were lodged at Rashid's 'safe house', trained at Kachgari, given guns and grenades, and accommodated back in the 'safe house', he has been quoted as saying.
Waza, who first crossed over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1987, says that when he went across the LoC for the second time in 1988, he was lodged in the same house along with other members of his group.
"The same armed men in civvies, who lodged at the safe house, gave us arms training. It was a seven-hour Toyota drive from the 'safe house' to the training camp. On return, after 10-15 days of training, they used to lodge us at the safe house again, click our photographs and send us back to the Valley," Waza said.
The former militant commander, who is now acting chairman of a faction of the People's Conference separatist outfit, said he had stayed in Rashid's house several times in 1988.
Waza recalls that when he first visited Pakistan, a meeting of his, along with another person Ghulam Nabi Bhat, was arranged with Inter-Services Intelligence's Col Assad who eventually arranged their meeting with Zia at President's House in Islamabad.
"Bhatsahib and myself had a long meeting with Zia," the former militant notes.
"Zia wanted the Kashmiris to take up arms against India. He told us that he had helped the Afghans and he would provide every kind of help to the oppressed Kashmiris," Waza said.
He recalled how after returning to Kashmir, he started motivating youth for militancy and sent them in batches across the LoC for training.
Rashid has earlier denied having helped militants, saying he only provided relief to Kashmiri refugees.