Author:
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: May 30, 2002
Al-Qaeda and Taliban members are
helping organize a terror campaign in Kashmir to foment conflict between
India and Pakistan, US intelligence officials and foreign diplomats say.
The strategy of the terrorist network
and its allies in the ousted Afghan government is to relieve pressure on
Al-Qaeda members hiding in western Pakistan by forcing the Pakistani government
to move troops searching for the terrorists to the eastern border with
India.
This is being done to destabilize
the Pakistan government by raising tensions with India.
Al-Qaeda's ability to coordinate
terrorist activities in Kashmir worries US officials because it indicates
the war in Afghanistan hasn't put the group out of business. The shift
of Pakistani troops to the Indian border leaves US operatives in western
Pakistan without crucial allies to pursue Al-Qaeda leaders that might include
Osama bin Laden.
Sources familiar with US Intelligence
analysis say Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the part of Kashmir controlled
by Pakistan are helping terrorists they had trained in Afghanistan to enter
India.
Their goal, says an Intelligence
official, is to "cause the biggest problem between India and Pakistan that
they possibly can." The intelligence is coming from interrogations of Al-Qaeda
and Taliban members, as well as information supplied by intelligence organizations
in Pakistan and India, the officials say.
Robert Oakley, former US ambassador
to Pakistan, says that if Al-Qaeda can do something to bring India and
Pakistan to war, that's wonderful for them as it relieves pressure on them.
A link between al-Qaeda and Kashmiri
militants would pose an awkward problem for the United States, which would
have trouble carrying out its war against Al-Qaeda and still remain neutral
in the India-Pakistan dispute.
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