Author: Our Political Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 15, 2001
The Vajpayee government, while offering
logistical support to the US administration for a possible retaliatory
attack against the Taliban, hopes that the terrorist camps dotting the
PoK and even Afghanistan would be targeted too.
It is common knowledge that many
of the terrorists operating in the Kashmir Valley are linked to Taliban,
while almost all regard Osama bin Laden as the role model. Groups such
as the Harkat-ul-Ansar and the Laskar-e-Toiba have maintained close links
with the mullah regime, which reciprocates Pakistan's help by letting the
ISI use its territory to run camps like Al-Badr in Khost province of Afghanistan.
Many Harkat-ul-Ansar activists in this camp were killed when the US fired
Cruise missiles against targets in Afghanistan in retaliation against the
'97 embassy bombings in East Africa, a handiwork of bin Laden.
India has always maintained that
these outfits are provided with help in the form of men and material by
bin Laden and Taliban. Compelling evidence gathered over the years has
buttressed this contention.
With a retaliatory strike by the
US against bin Laden and his mentors in Afghanistan looming large, India
was fervently hoping that the terrorist camps in the PoK and elsewhere
would come under the purview of the American attacks. In that sense, it
will be hoping for a repeat of '97 when US cruise missiles hit some of
these camps. However, they were described accidental hits then. India would
be hoping that that this time around there would be deliberate attacks.
Delhi today submitted to the FBI
more documents that prove the Taliban and Pakistan government's complicity
in fomenting terrorism in India. These include a list of the camps operating
from the PoK and Afghanistan and evidences coughed up by the terrorists,
most of whom were mercenaries from Afghanistan and Pakistan caught by the
armed forces during the anti-insurgency operations in the Valley and other
parts of the country. The exhaustive documents were prepared by the Union
home minister in active consultation with the IB and RAW. Most of these
documents were handed over by home minister L K Advani to Pakistani president
Pervez Musharraf during his visit to India last month. The packet handled
over to FBI also includes several video films, procured by RAW, showing
youth from countries being trained in camps that have sprung up on the
Pakistan side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the PoK.
