Author: Dinesh Manhotra
Publication: The Daily
Excelsior
Date: December 4, 2000
Even as the Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee has announced unilateral cease-fire in the holy month
of Ramzan to bring peace and tranquility, Pakistan, on the other hand,
has intensified efforts to infiltrate maximum number of Fidayeens to escalate
violence in the State.
Pakistan has, so far,
succeded in infiltrating about 400 Fidayeens during the last few months.
Fidayeens, all of whom are foreign mercenaries, have been assigned the
task to intensify attacks on camps of security forces.
These startling disclosure
were made by Rashid code name Abu Hassan, a self-styled area commander
of Lashker-e-Toiba, who surrendered before Special Task Force (STF), Mahore
some days back. Rashid, a resident of Mahore tehsil, had recently
returned after getting 9 months rigorous training from different training
camps at Pakistan.
Rashid disclosed that
Pakistani authorities have arranged various training camps for pan-Islamic
militants at numerous places to export terrorism in different parts of
the world. Rashid revealed that he along with some other local youth
had attained training of handling sophisticated arms and ammunition from
Muzzafarabad camp where about 1200 militants from different nations including
Sudan, Turkey, Chechanya, Saudi Arabia and some Western countries were
getting training.
"After five months training
about 400 youths, mostly foreigners had volunteered themselves for Fidayeen
(suicidal squad) ", he said and added that most of these Fidayeen have
managed to sneak into Indian side. These Fidayeens, he said, have
been given strict instructions from across the border to intensify attacks
on security forces and army camps. Rashid said that special commando
training has been imparted to Fidayeens to sneak to camps and to execute
maximum casualties.
Narrating details as
to how he managed to cross over to Pakistan, Abu Hassan revealed that he
crossed over to Pakistan from Sunderbani area after spending 8 nights in
their way from Arnas to LoC in November 1999. "As we reached near
border our guide flashed a message across the LoC and Pakistani soldiers
resorted to heavy shelling to divert attention of the Indian Army", he
said, adding, " we halted at Sabar Post of Pakistan from where we were
taken to Muzzafarabad camp in Pakistani Army vehicle".
Surrendered militant
disclosed that one Hafiz Sayeed, a former Afghan Mujahideen has been imparting
commando training to militants at Muzzafarabad camp. He said that
clashes between different militant groups were a routine affair in the
training camps. "Foreign militants usually treat local Kashmiri youth
as slaves and commit atrocities on them", he said, adding, "about 10 Kashmiri
youth have been killed by Pakistani and other militants in Muzzafarabad
camp".
Abu Hassan said that
he sneaked into this side with a group of ten militants including two from
Turkey, two from Sudan and three from Pakistan. "Pakistani authorities
gave me an amount of Rs 80,000 as first installment to lure more and more
local youth to join Jehad", he said and added that Pakistani authorities
were more particular about local youth as their number among militants
rank and file have been decreasing".
SDPO, Mahore Sanjay Sharma,
who played an important role in convincing Rashid to shun violence and
join main-stream, said that during the last few months 4 dreaded militants
have surrendered before police. "A good number of militants have
contacted us for surrender and we have been considering their case sympathetically",
Sharma said and added that a comprehensive policy has been formulated to
rehabilitate the surrendered militants.