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Foreign mercenaries active in Kashmir Valley

Foreign mercenaries active in Kashmir Valley

Author: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: October 17, 2001

There are an estimated 1,300 foreign mercenaries currently operating in Jammu and Kashmir and nearly three-fourths of them belong to three organisations, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

This has been stated in an internal note prepared by a team of officials in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The note adds that while the overwhelming majority of these foreign mercenaries have come from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), quite a few have come from Afghanistan and Bangladesh and some from as far away as Sudan and Egypt.

While mercenaries have been active in India's northernmost state since 1993, they have motivated local terrorists to carry out more than 30 suicide ("fidayeen") attacks from July 1999. The last one being the car-bomb attack that took place near the Assembly building in Srinagar.

The Home Ministry note says the largest number of foreign mercenaries (around 500 of them) is attached to the Lashkar. Some 300 mercenaries are with the Hizbul, 200 with the Jaish-e-Mohammed while the remaining are with smaller groups like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (175), the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (60), the Al Badr and the Tehrik-e-Jehad.

The team of officials has calculated that out of a total of roughly 3,200 terrorists operating in Kashmir, more than one-third of them are foreign mercenaries. It has been estimated that around 1,850 terrorists are in the Kashmir Valley and the rest in the Jammu region.

According to an official who requested anonymity, contrary to expectations, there has been no decline in the activities of foreign mercenaries since September 11. In fact, the Ministry apprehends that there has been an increase in infiltration from training camps in PoK.

Jaish supporters have become aggressive and are indulging in "demonstrative" violence by targeting symbols of governance.

The official said that an average of 10 killings are taking place in J&K every day. Official statistics say between January 1998 and June 2001, nearly 3,000 civilians and over 1,300 security personnel have been killed in the State.
 


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