The information has been verified by Indian intelligence which says training camps have been set up by Al-Badar.
The information has been verified by Indian intelligence which says training camps have been set up by Al-Badar.
NEW DELHI: A Kashmiri militant group has been tasked by Pakistani agencies to target Indians in Afghanistan, according to alerts issued to India by an European intelligence agency. The foreign agency has reported new terror camps belonging to these Kashmiri group in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), close to Afghan border.
The information has been verified by Indian agencies, which believe a few training camps have been set up by Al-Badar on the instructions of Pakistani authorities. “It is a new threat” and a “serious one”, say sources in the Indian security establishment as they express fear of more attacks on Indians in Afghanistan.
Al-Badar, a Kashmiri terrorist group comprising mostly of Pakistanis, has been active in the Valley since 1998. The group may have over 300 active, well-trained terrorists, according to Indian intelligence agencies.
Sources said the information was passed on to Indian contacts by the intelligence agency of one of the countries involved in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The ISAF is the NATO-led force with UN mandate to maintain security in Afghanistan.
The militant group has set up several smaller training camps, while dismantling a large camp in the area to avoid detection.
India had clues that Pakistan’s designs to target Indians in Afghanistan are to prevent India from spreading its influence and presence in the strife-torn nation. There are indications that the two Indians killed by Taliban forces over the past few months may have been victims of Pakistan’s strategy.
Maniappan Raman Kutty, a driver with the Border Roads Organisation, was murdered last November. K Suryanarayana, an engineer from Andhra Pradesh, was also murdered there earlier this year. Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee told Parliament a few days after Suryanarayana’s murder that the ISI’s hand was suspected in the killing.
Pakistan, for sometime now, has been pressurising Afghanistan, demanding it to get India to close its consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Pakistan accuses India of assisting Baluchistan rebels and other separatists operating in its soil.
The great battle between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan now has a new twist with ISAF inputs regarding Al-Badar training camps. Some 2,000 Indians are present in the country currently.
These inputs are contrary to visible indications available along the Line of Control of very sincere efforts by Pakistan to control infiltration into India.
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