Classified note on ISI shows India as one of the worst victims of cross-border terrorism
George Iype in New Delhi
The Union home ministry has prepared a detailed classified document on the operations of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and its networks in India that are abetting terrorism in the border state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Official sources said the document giving meticulous details about the
ISI-sponsored terrorist camps in Kashmir is to prove before the United States that India is one of the worst victims of cross-border terrorism in the world.
The document is in response to the recent statement of US Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering that Washington reserved the right to attack terrorists in any country but India could not take similar action in Kashmir as that could 'run the risk of setting off a wider conflict'.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani have protested it as the US double standards of abrogating to itself the right to bomb terrorist bases in other nations while denying the same right to other countries, victims of similar acts.
The document says that there are nearly 190 foreign-backed terrorist outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir of which 15 are termed as 'very active outfits'.
The ministry estimates that 900 out of the more than 2,300 hardcore
militants currently operating in Jammu and Kashmir are foreign mercenaries.
The ministry records also say that a total number of 835 foreign mercenaries were killed in Jammu and Kashmir during the past seven years. Of these more than 200 were reportedly nationals belonging to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the remaining from Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen and Bahrain, Bangladesh, Iran and
Iraq.
The dominant terrorist outfits operating in Kashmir are Harkat-ul-Ansar, Hizbul-Mujhadeen and Lashkar-e-Tohiba.
The document lists 21 ISI-run camps in Afghanistan, 47 in Pakistan, 39 in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir which are actively involved in Pakistan's proxy war against India in Kashmir.
It also refers to a number of Islamic organisations across India which are being used as effective networks by the ISI to carry out its terrorist activities in Kashmir and setting off bomb explosions in other parts of the country.
''India has definite and accurate information about the existence of
terrorist training camps in Pakistan and therefore, we are forced to engage in hot pursuit of terrorists across the border,'' an official associated with the preparation of the document told Rediff On The NeT.
Advani on Friday held high-level talks with intelligence heads and the
ministry's J & K cell officials to review the government's initiatives at preventing and liquidating the ISI-sponsored insurgent and
terrorist groups from Kashmir.
Soon after he took over as home minister in March, Advani had given his nod to the J & K government and central security forces to carry out 'deep strikes' into the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to destroy the training camps of terrorists and mercenaries.
Advani has termed his pro-active policy in Kashmir as
'successful'. And he has now ordered the intelligence
agencies and the state police heads across the country to identify and smash the networks working for Pakistan.
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