United States experts say their ties only got stronger after General Pervez Musharraf began his crackdown.
US experts say their ties only got stronger after Musharraf began his crackdown
WASHINGTON, DC: The links between al-Qaeda and Kashmiri terrorist groups go back to the 1990s, two leading experts have told DNA after a scathing article published in The New Republic, in which they say Britain is becoming the new “Kashmir on Thames”.
Peter Bergen, CNN’s senior terrorism analyst, and Paul Cruickshank, fellow at the New York University Law School’s Centre on Law and Security and an analyst on terrorism in Britain, said al-Qaeda shared training camps with Pakistan-based terrorist organisations. The well-entrenched relationships go back to the 1990s, Bergen and Cruickshank suggested.
“The relationship between al-Qaeda and Kashmiri groups is grounded in shared ideology,” Cruickshank said. “After the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were banned by President Pervez Musharraf, both came even closer to al-Qaeda.”
The terror groups, Cruickshank said, shared more than training facilities. “The relationship became strongest after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.”
He said there were two kinds of Kashmiri militant groups — those with nationalist leanings, and those that have a religious base. “Lashkar and Jaish are two of the most active religious-militant groups in Kashmir,” he said. “Al-Qaeda turned to Kashmir when its relationship with them got closer.”
Bergen said the US intelligence community is aware of the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Kashmiri terrorists, and that it is sharing intelligence with Pakistan on this issue. “Many of the terror cells now operate underground,” he said.
Cruickshank said that even though Musharraf knows Pakistan is the new base for al-Qaeda and that Kashmir is one of its core issues, “he is in a very difficult situation”. He said, “There is no love lost between Musharraf and al-Qaeda, but he is also aware that there are elements within his own establishment, specifically from the ISI, who are sympathetic towards al-Qaeda and militants in Kashmir.” Besides, Cruickshank said, the religious right in Pakistan is fairly vociferous against Musharraf’s policies.
During his research over the years, Cruickshank said, he realised that a disproportionate number of Pakistanis were joining al-Qaeda and the Kashmiri groups. “The Kashmir issue has been radicalised completely by everyone involved,” he said.
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