Author: Deepak Sharma/New Delhi
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 28, 2001
Pakistan based terrorist organisation
Lashkar-e-Toiba has its presence in more than 36 cities in India including
new centres like Allahabad, Patna, Thane, Banglore, Chennai, Udaipur and
Khandwa.
The Islamic extremist outfit which
claims it is waging Jehad in Kashmir is backing organised criminal gangs
in the country and is also involved in a large scale drug trafficking and
smuggling of counterfeit Indian currency.
A secret report of the Intelligence
Bureau sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) reveal that Lashkar cadres
now plan to destroy all the major oil installations and ordinance depots
in the country.
Another Pak based outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed
plans to carry out terrorist activities in Ayodhya and has the names of
top Indian politicians on their hitlist.
The IB reports says that Lashkar-e-toiba
is involved in large scale drug trafficking. "More than 72 kg of drugs
worth Rs 70 crore has been recovered from the militants this year. In other
words the mercenaries have raised funds worth over Rs 100 crore only through
drug trafficking," said a top MHA official. Significantly, "just three
years ago only 6 kg of narcotics was recovered from terrorist outfits,"
the official added.
The report says that foreign militant
groups are also pumping in huge amount of fake Indian currency into the
domestic market. In the year 2000 fake currency worth Rs 31 lakh was recovered
while this year the seizure has been upto 2.48 crore.
"The currency notes are of fine
quality and can only be detected through hi-tech gadgets. The militants
are running the racket through the organised criminal gangs in several
cities," the official said.
But more alarming is the fact that
Lashkar cadres are making their presence felt not only in Jammu and Kashmir
but far off places like Bangaon in West Bengal; Udaipur in Rajasthan; Faizabad,
Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad and Siddarthnagar in Uttar Pradesh; Ahmedabad,
Gandhinagar, Khandwa and Khera in Gujarat.
The report says that LeT has made
new bases in Kanpur, a few pockets in Lucknow and Varanasi. "It seems that
after Kashmir, ISI's next target would be UP. Cities like Muzzafarnagar,
Aligarh, Moradabad and Meerut are hotbed of communal violence," the report
adds.
Interrogation reports of a few arrested
militants reveal that foreign mercenaries are also supplying arms to mafia
gangs. Small arms and ammunition have been supplied to gangs in Mumbai,
Patna and even Kolkata.
Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed have
also hatched a conspiracy simultaneously with the members of Abu Salem
and Chhota Shakeel gangs to abduct important persons to secure release
of jailed terrorists.
The IB in its report has said that
with the busting of a LeT module in UP early this month, attempt to blow
up a temple in Faizabad was thwarted. Besides, with the arrest of 24 terrorists
of Hijbul Mujahideen and SIMI activists, 16 cases of explosion in different
parts of country was detected.
