Pakistan- AQ Khan- India- Loose Nukes Options

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?p...40823-2002Jan13
Pakistani Militants Forced Underground
Groups Reorganize in Wake of Crackdown
By Kamran Khan and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 14, 2002; Page A01
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 13 -- With their existence suddenly threatened by Pakistan's promised crackdown on terrorism, Islamic militants here are going into hiding, altering their identities and reorganizing their movements into underground cells, according to group leaders and government officials.
For years, militant organizations fighting to drive India from the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir have operated in plain sight inside Pakistan. But as the Pakistani government has moved to rein them in over the past three weeks, several groups have relocated their bases to secret locations throughout Pakistan, where they plan to continue recruiting members and raising money, leaders said. They also have moved some public outreach offices to Pakistan's slice of Kashmir, where they expect the government to tolerate their existence as long as they keep a low profile.
"We will fight," Abdullah Sayyaf, a spokesman for the militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, told reporters today. "If the Indians have the guts, let them stop us in Kashmir."
Pakistani police say they have detained an estimated 1,500 militants and religious radicals in the past two days, many of them in this port city. The roundup was planned in conjunction with a speech given Saturday by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who declared that he was banning five extremist groups and would closely monitor other militants.
Musharraf's televised address received a cautious welcome today in India, where the government has demanded that Pakistan curb Islamic groups staging cross-border attacks. Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said that India agreed with the principles laid out by Musharraf, but that "we have to see if there are any gaps between what is said and what is done." [Details, Page A14.]
The Pakistani crackdown amounts to a rapid reversal in the government's stance toward militant organizations. Until recently, they were allowed and even encouraged to operate in the open. They kept storefront offices, advertised in newspapers and aggressively raised money in mosques and on the streets.
Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, there were no restrictions against Pakistani citizens joining such groups. Indeed, police officials in the southern province of Sindh said the government had instructed them to allow militant groups in Karachi to recruit soldiers for guerrilla training and to solicit contributions for holy wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
The new policy has been hard to enforce because the change was so abrupt, said a senior Karachi police official. "It is too difficult for us to adjust to the new guidelines," he said.
In his speech Saturday, Musharraf said the militants had done Pakistan's image and society irreparable harm and would no longer be tolerated. He announced that five groups would be forced to disband.
Three of them are religious militant organizations that the government blames for sectarian violence within Pakistan that led to 400 deaths last year.
The two others -- Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Muhammad -- are dedicated to disrupting Indian rule in Kashmir and were accused of plotting the Dec. 13 attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi that claimed 14 lives.
Another Kashmiri separatist group, Harkat ul-Ansar, was banned three years ago but resurfaced as Harkat ul-Mujaheddin, and remains active despite being banned in October. Two other Kashmiri rebel organizations, Al-Badr Mujaheddin and Hizb ul-Mujaheddin, have not been outlawed but are preparing to carry out their activities in secret from now on.
Senior police officials in the province of Punjab said commanders of the five Kashmiri rebel groups have ordered thousands of followers to go into hiding. Many have already changed their identities, police said.
"We have learned the lessons from the blunders made by al Qaeda and the Taliban. Those will never be repeated in Pakistan," said a 22-year-old former Karachi University student who gave his name as Abu Hafsa. "In the future, each one of our registered activists will use a cover name."
Hafsa said he belonged to Jaish-i-Muhammad and bragged that he had participated in five guerrilla raids against the Indian army in the Baramula and Aath Moqam districts of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "I have seen my Pakistani and Kashmiri friends giving their lives in Kashmir," he said. "Who is President Musharraf to stop me from waging holy war against India?"
Several militants said the groups were working to build a communication network that would enable them to continue their actions without tipping off authorities.
Abu Nisar, a follower of Lashkar-i-Taiba, said members would keep in touch via Web-based e-mail, Internet bulletin boards and electronic paging, as well as short-messaging services on their mobile phones. "In Afghanistan, it was not possible to do this, but here we use all means of communication," Nisar said.
Pakistani intelligence officials said they can tap fixed and cellular phones but lack the equipment and knowledge to intercept the other forms of communications.
Pakistani officials also have had little success tracking the financial assets of the militants. For instance, Pakistan announced last month that it would freeze the assets of Jaish-i-Muhammad and Lashkar-i-Taiba, but the Central Bank so far has found no money in the group's bank accounts, according to government officials.
Pakistan's Interior Ministry has estimated that the five Kashmiri rebel groups have about 5,000 followers, many of them trained in guerrilla warfare.
A senior Pakistani official said the government was worried about a backlash from the militants. "A new underground army of 5,000 armed and trained religious extremists [could] revolt against this about-face in the government's posture," he said. "They could pose the greatest threat to law and order in Pakistan for weeks and months to come."
Pakistani security officials said unemployed, semi-educated youths form the core of the groups, but they noted that the militants also attract doctors, engineers and people serving in sensitive government jobs.
Officials and analysts in India play down fears of the militants slipping underground, saying they are more concerned whether extremist groups will continue to be supported by Pakistan's military and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI). India contends that groups such as Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Muhammad have been funded, trained and equipped by Pakistan's military, a charge Islamabad denies.
If Musharraf is serious about putting the groups out of business -- and the military follows his orders -- then it is unlikely the militants will be able to retain much of their strength, even if they operate clandestinely, the Indian officials and analysts said.
"The real question is what will the military and the ISI do?" one Indian official said. "If they really crack down on these groups, then it doesn't really matter if they try to change their names or go underground. Where will they get their guns from? How will they get money?"
Indian officials also argued that it would be difficult for the groups to stay undetected in Pakistan, given the military's generally tight control over the country. Even if the groups did succeed in hiding their activities, Indian officials and analysts said, the movement of large numbers of militants across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir could not take place without the knowledge of the Pakistani army.
"The militants cannot cross the LOC in significant numbers without the knowledge and the support of the Pakistani military," said Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyan, a former adviser to India's national security council.
But a leader of a Pakistani religious party with close ties to Hizb ul-Mujaheddin said the new government restrictions against Kashmiri rebel groups would not prevent them from pursuing their cause.
"Musharraf can never stop the freedom movement in Kashmir. No one can," said Khurshid Ahmad, vice president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. "The Kashmiri struggle will not cease. It may have its ups and downs, but it will not stop."
Whitlock reported from Islamabad. Correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran in New Delhi contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-308724,00.html
World News
May 27, 2002
Pakistan has secretly built up nuclear arsenal
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad
PAKISTANI scientists have secretly been working round the clock for the past three years to accelerate production of weapons-grade uranium for atomic warheads. According to a leading Pakistani nuclear physicist, the country could have more warheads than previously thought.
Pakistan successfully tested a ballistic surface-to-surface missile yesterday for the second day running, increasing tension with its nuclear rival, India, and once again proving that it also has the means to deliver its weapons.
On the other side of the border, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister, said his country’s patience with Islamic militant attacks was running out: “There is a limit to our patience,” he said in a national television address.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of nuclear physics at Quaid-e-Azam university in Islamabad, told The Times: “The scientists have been working in three shifts over the past three years since the Kargil conflict.” Dr Hoodbhoy said there were clear indications that the nuclear warheads were already in place on missiles.
“We are much closer to a nuclear confrontation with India than at any other time,” he said.
The disclosure raised the possibility that Pakistan could assemble more nuclear warheads than the estimated 30 to 50. Each warhead is thought to have the same explosive power as the US atomic weapon dropped over Hiroshima in 1945. Reports say that India has already taken its warheads out of storage to be fitted to delivery systems.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, leaves for the region today to try to ease tensions and to open dialogue. He will propose establishing greater contact between Islamabad and New Delhi to avoid either side accidentally triggering a nuclear holocaust.
President Bush appealed to President Musharraf to “show results” by clamping down on attacks in India by militants from Pakistan. Mr Musharraf, who is due to deliver a televised address to the Pakistani people today, said that he had acted to stop all military actions and insisted he was not looking for confrontation with India. But he also vowed to defend himself if attacked.
In an interview with the Washington Post, he accused India of trying to “destabilise me, my Government and Pakistan” in the past weeks and gave warning that if war broke out “we’ll take the offensive into Indian territory”.
India, which outnumbers Pakistan in conventional and nuclear weapons, paid particularly close attention to the missile tests over the weekend.
Pakistan successfully tested a short-range Ghaznavi missile capable of hitting targets 180 miles away yesterday. On Saturday it tested a Ghauri missile with a range of 950 miles. It is widely expected to test fire its long range Shaheen 2 missile, which can reach targets 1,800 miles away.
“The flight data indicated that all design parameters have been successfully validated,” a military spokesman said. The development is said to have enhanced Pakistan’s tactical nuclear strike capability.
The Ghauri missile is capable of hitting Delhi, Bombay and other major Indian cities, while the Ghaznavi, according to defence experts, could be used against the Indian forces on the front line. “Ghaznavi underscores Pakistan’s capability for tactical nuclear strike,” a defence analyst said.
The tests were conducted in defiance of an appeal by President Bush and President Putin who, on Saturday, expressed concern over the missile launches and urged Mr Musharraf to halt raids into Indian-controlled territory.
Pakistan welcomed Mr Putin’s suggestion for a meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders in Kazakhstan next month. Pakistani officials said that President Musharraf was prepared for talks with Indian leaders “anytime, anywhere”.
Pakistan insisted that the missile tests were routine. “The tests were merely a technical requirement and it should not be seen as an offensive measure,” Nisar Memon, the Minister for Information, said. Nevertheless, the timing was a defiant gesture that added to world alarm.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=1&date1=2002-02-07
India to lease Russian nuclear submarines
Updated on 2002-02-07 10:31:52
LONDON, Feb 07 (PNS): India navy will lease two Russian Nuclear-Powered Submarines (SSNs) to expand its offensive operations in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.
Indian navy will lease two Akula (Bars)- class type 971 SSNs for five years after financing their construction under an agreement currently being negotiated with Rosoboron export, Russia's state-owned arms exporting agency, the report said.
The SSN's are expected to enter service of the Indian navy during 2004, although the contract is still to be approved by the Indian government.
Reports from Moscow say the type 971 programme has been frozen because of funding problems. Fourteen submarines have been built and the last one was commissioned last December.
End.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/sout...stan/index.html
India reports Kashmir attack
January 14, 2002 Posted: 2:05 PM EST (1905 GMT)
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The Indian military is reporting a new militant attack in Kashmir, despite Islamabad's new pledge to root out terrorism.
Two suspected militants were shot to death after they allegedly tried to attack a paramilitary camp in Srinigar Sunday. Officials say the militants injured two Indian security forces.
India says it will continue to reinforce military positions in Kashmir until Pakistan fully implements its anti-terror pledge. Hundreds of troops arrived by train in Indian-controlled Kashmir Sunday.
Welcoming Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to crack down on religious extremists, India has said it will judge its neighbor's actions before it begins a military de-escalation or resumes dialogue.
"We welcome the now declared commitment [by Pakistan] not to support or permit any more the use of its territory for terrorism anywhere in the world, including in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir," Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said at a press conference on Sunday.
India would resume dialogue with Pakistan once cross-border terrorism had stopped, Singh said.
"The lessening of tensions on the border is entirely dependent on the steps that are taking inside Pakistan. We have to go not by stated intent, but action on the ground," he said.
The press conference was the first official Indian reaction to Musharraf's televised national address on Saturday in which the Pakistani leader announced a ban on five militant Islamic groups, including two that have been blamed for the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament that killed 14 people.
U.S. President George W. Bush phoned both Indian and Pakistani leaders and urged them to continue peace efforts.
Bush thanked Musharraf for his strongly worded speech and he told Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that Musharraf's speech was a positive development and in line with India's conditions for reducing tensions and military deployments along the India-Pakistan border. Bush spoke to each leader for about five minutes.
Militants banned
India has pushed Musharraf to ban the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and hand over the groups' leaders for trial.
In addition to these two Kashmir groups, the Pakistani leader said he was banning two rival domestic groups, the Sunni Sipah-i-Sahaba and the Shi'ite Tehrik-i-Jafria.
Both groups have been blamed for a rash of attacks across Pakistan.
Musharraf also banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammedi, a Sunni group operating in northwestern Pakistan.
The group sent thousands of Pakistanis to Afghanistan in October to fight with the Taliban.
But Musharraf said that any Pakistanis accused of participating in the deadly attack would be tried in Pakistan.
"There would be a similar need to address other organizations targeting India, as also the parent organizations that spawned them," Singh said in response.
He added that Pakistan's lack of action against 20 men accused of bombings, airplane hijackings, assassinations and other crimes in India "was disappointing."
Kashmir appeal rejected
While endorsing the Pakistani leader's vow to curb cross-border terrorism, Singh said that India "rejects entirely the contents of the president of Pakistan's speech in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir."
Musharraf said that Pakistan would "not budge on its principled stand" on the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu Kashmir, a majority-Muslim region split by a Line of Control between Pakistan and India.
Pakistan supports independence for Kashmir, while India wants to keep the state within its own borders.
Musharraf has appealed for a third party preferably the U.N. to broker dialogue over the issue of the troubled region and said that human rights groups should monitor alleged human rights abuses by the "Indian occupation forces."
India was "committed to bilateral dialogue", Singh said.
"Should the government of Pakistan operationalize its intentions and move purposely toward eradicating cross-border terrorism, we will be prepared to resume the dialogue process," he said.
Singh offered a ray of light to the tense military stand-off between both nuclear neighbors.
"For every step that Pakistan takes will take two," he said, indicating that India was prepared to take action on its sides to ease cross-border tensions.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=30&date1=2002-01-11
India renews Threats, wants Nuclear War
Makhdum Ali
Updated on 2002-01-11 20:07:02
LAHORE, PAKISTAN (PNS) January 11, 2002 - India with its notorious interior minister in Washington has yet again escalated tensions in the region. This time Indian General S Padmanabhand said a "warlike" situation is underday, adding, "The situation can comfortably be described as serious." General also said claims India is ready for war, conventional or nuclear.
Earlier Indian Prime Minister ordered one million Indian Army deployed along Pakistan's border while claiming 'India wants Peace.'
This is sharp contrast to Pakistan which has been advocating peace in the region while being a leading partner in U.S. led global war against Terrorism. Pakistan supported by Amnesty International's reports, says Indian engages in state terrorism and genocide of Kashmiris in Indian occupied areas of Kashmir. India while stalling the implementation of United Nations resolutions of right of self-determination for Kashmiris, claims Pakistan helps Kashmiris fighting for freedom from Indian occupation.
The dispute over Kashmir has caught international attention since 1998 when India nuclearlized the region with its nuclear test which was matched by Pakistan.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=3&date1=2002-01-15
India had planned to attack Pakistan on Jan 10
Updated on 2002-01-15 10:10:31
ISLAMABAD, Jan 15 (PNS): Many analysts believe that General Mushahraf's speech had helped easing down tension between India and Pakistan but a few of them knew that an impending attack by India was warded off just two days before speech.
PNS can report that on the night between January 10th and 11th India had planned to open Rajhistan sector late night and had put its troops, artillery and armoured vehicles in advanced position.
On the other side of the border, Pakistani troops were also fully mobilised and were ready to launch a counter offensive. As the top brass in Pakistan learnt about the war situation developing and likelihood of the opening of battlefront anytime they immediately activated the diplomatic channels.
"US ambassador was informed late night by the Pakistan government about the situation", and she was told that once a battlefront opened then there would be no stopping and the war may spreads all along international border.
The US ambassador was asked to take her government in confidence immediately. The diplomatic channels got activated immediately and US State department contacted Indian higher ups telling them that this would be the least acceptable to the United States.
Military analysts in Pakistan claim that after General Musharraf's speech and hectic diplomatic efforts over the past week, Indian military build-up now appears to be more for internal political gains rather than any external foreign policy objective.
End.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...o/russia_iran_3
World News
February 28, 2002
India braced for anarchy after fatal train attack
By Catherine Philp, South Asia Correspondent
INDIA faces the prospect of more mob violence after Hindu hardliners vowed last night to build a temple on the disputed Ayodhya holy site.
This was despite an attack in which Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists from the site, killing at least 55 people, including 14 children.
Religious tension is rising against the background of the War on Terror and the conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir which has a Muslim majority.
Across the state there were reports of sporadic unrest last night: two buses were attacked and burnt in Ahmedabad. Elsewhere one man was killed and two others injured in apparent revenge attacks.
The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has appealed for calm and cancelled a visit to this weekend’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia. In the town of Godhra, where the train was set on fire, a youth of 17 was shot dead by police as they dispersed the mob. The streets were later deserted as police enforced a curfew.
Thousands of Hindus had gathered in Ayodhya to plan the building of the temple on the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque. Its destruction by a Hindu mob ten years ago caused riots throughout India in which 3,000 died.
The Sabarmati Express was taking Hindu militants home to Gujarat from a purification ceremony at the temple site when it was attacked. Police said that a mob gathered outside the station as the passengers shouted Hindu slogans. As the train left the station it was surrounded by about 2,000 people. They doused one carriage with petrol and set it alight, trapping dozens of passengers inside.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-309678,00.html
World News
May 28, 2002
Britain has armed both sides
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
INDIA and Pakistan have bought some of Britain’s most combat-proven weapon systems, including fighter aircraft and warships.
India has bought Harriers, Jaguar fighter-bombers, Sea King helicopters and, in the 1980s, purchased the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, which served in the 1982 Falklands War. The carrier, which carries British-built Sea Harriers, was renamed Viraat.
The Indian Navy has bought other second-hand warships from Britain, including Leander-class frigates. In 1993 Pakistan bought six Amazon-class frigates from Britain and also has Leander-class frigates.
Yet at present neither country is a leading defence customer for Britain. Recently British defence companies have been granted licences to sell arms to India to the value of £65 million and to Pakistan £6 million. For a country that sold arms worth £4.7 billion in the past 12 months, keeping around 350,000 defence workers in employment, India and Pakistan represent a tiny proportion of the market.
The approved sales to India involved 700 separate licences, indicating that each contract was of small value — unlike the potential deal involving the sale of 66 BAE Systems Hawk jet trainers for £1 billion, which is still being negotiated.
Contracts signed in the past two years for India have included components for air-to-surface missiles, parts for aircraft machineguns and armoured personnel carriers and components for combat helicopters, military communications and riot control equipment. The orders for Pakistan have included components for combat helicopters and spare parts for frigates, military training aircraft and utility vehicles.
One of the biggest ongoing contracts with India involves the manufacture under licence of Jaguar ground-attack aircraft. Throughout the 1990s, BAE Systems, formerly British Aerospace, licensed the production of 126 Jaguars in India by Hindustan Aeronautics.
Yesterday, as Whitehall appeared to be confused about the implications of the possible sale of Hawk jet trainers to India, Richard Bingley, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade lobby group, said: “It seems somewhat farcical to despatch the Foreign Secretary to the Asian subcontinent to promote peace while continuing to arm the region with UK defence exports.”

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-309900,00.html
World News
May 28, 2002
Arms export row damages peace mission
By Tom Baldwin, Philip Webster and Michael Evans
TONY BLAIR was under pressure last night to disclose whether Britain was still exporting components for Jaguar aircraft to India amid reports that the country has begun converting the fighters for nuclear capability.
Ministers suggested earlier this month that they saw no reason to block the sales and yesterday BAE Systems, which has supplied the parts to India since the 1970s under a controversial licensing deal, said that it was unaware of any significant problems with its exports.
Labour MPs demanded that the Government come clean as Mr Blair was left embarrassed and angry as disarray over his policy on arms exports to India and Pakistan threatened to undermine Jack Straw’s peace mission to Kashmir.
Patricia Hewitt, the Trade Secretary, was in trouble over erroneous reports inspired by her department that suggested that Britain had formally suspended exports or imposed an embargo. The sale by BAE Systems of 66 Hawk aircraft worth £1 billion to India was said to be under threat.
As Mr Straw flew to the area to urge restraint, and Mr Blair did the same in telephone conversations with the leaders of Pakistan and India, Downing Street was forced into a fierce denial that it had imposed an embargo. It insisted that everything was being examined on a case-by-case basis.
Many of the 700 export licences granted to British arms manufacturers last year were for BAE-made components used by India to build Jaguars.
However, according to the respected defence publication Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Delhi Government has been getting help from Israeli firms in upgrading these aircraft to fire nuclear weapons.
Last night the Department of Trade and Industry refused to say if it was blocking export licences for these components, including engines, spare parts and communications systems. Martin O’Neill, the chairman of the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, said: “There are very few countries with nuclear capability and given the situation between Pakistan and India we should not be pouring petrol on a fire. The nuclear factor requires that Britain has the utmost degree of transparency. The public are entitled to know what is happening here.”
Paul Eavis, the director of the Saferworld think-tank that campaigns against arms exports, said last night: “We are particularly concerned about the export of Hawk jets and the sale of Jaguar components which may be used to build a system of delivering nuclear weapons. This shows why there should be an arms embargo against both India and Pakistan.”
Nigel Griffiths, the Trade Minister, has dismissed the recent reports that India is upgrading its Jaguar aircraft to carry nuclear bombs as “pure speculation”.
In a letter earlier this month to Tony Baldry, the former Tory minister, he said: “There is no evidence that India has modified its Jaguars to carry a nuclear weapon or that it has any plans to do so.”
Downing Street was furious over the arms embargo reports. It feared that the impression of heavy-handedness at a time when it was pressing for calm from the two countries would send the wrong kind of diplomatic signal and would damage Mr Straw’s mission It also had to contend with angry protests from the unions concerned about the loss of jobs if the Hawk deal failed, and worries from BAE Systems about a deal for which a licence has not even been sought yet. The delivery date is not until 2004.
Ms Hewitt was accused by some senior ministers privately of “playing to the Left” by giving the impression that she had suspended arms exports.
A Downing Street official said in apparent exasperation: “If there is an embargo, a suspension, or a threat to the Hawk deal it’s news to the Prime Minister. You would have expected him to know."

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-310694,00.html
World News
May 29, 2002
Putin steps in to offer hope of peace deal
From Zahid Hussain in Islamabad, Catherine Philp in Delhi and Richard Owen in Rome
HOPE of averting a war between India and Pakistan rose last night when Russia confirmed that the leaders of the two nuclear powers had agreed to meet President Putin in Kazakhstan next week.
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military leader, and Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister, would both attend a regional security summit with Mr Putin though they had not agreed to meet each other, the Russian foreign ministry said.
The news followed another day of international appeals for restraint. In a meeting with General Musharraf in Islamabad Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, demanded that Pakistan end all support for Islamic militants engaged in terrorist attacks, but extracted no immediate concessions.
For the third time in four days Pakistan test-fired a missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads into Indian territory in a further display of sabre-rattling. India dismissed General Musharraf’s hardline and uncompromising address to the Pakistani people on Monday as “disappointing and dangerous”, saying it had merely stoked tensions between two countries that had massed a million troops along their common border.
The crisis over Kashmir also forced its way onto the agenda of what was supposed to be a largely ceremonial meeting in Rome between Mr Putin and the leaders of Nato’s 19 member states.
The prime ministers and presidents appealed to India and Pakistan to “step back from the brink” of nuclear war. They urged the two countries to bear in mind their “wider responsibilities to the world and to sit down and talk peacefully about a way forward from this crisis,” Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Nato’s Secretary General, said.
On the first stop of Mr Straw’s peacekeeping mission to the region he delivered an uncompromising message that Pakistan had to end support for Islamic militants involved in terrorist attacks across the border.
The Foreign Secretary, who later flew to Delhi, told a press conference: “With more than one million men facing each other across the border and both sides possessing weapons, the risks are obvious and considerable.”
He said that terrorism could not be condoned in any form and that the world could not see any distinction between freedom fighters and terrorists. “We had experience of terrorists in Northern Ireland telling us they were blowing up and killing innocent people in the name of freedom. I am afraid that was unpersuasive both to the government and particularly to the victims.”
Mr Straw expressed concern about the “human rights situation” in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but said that would only improve when terrorism ended.
Indian officials had been closely watching General Musharraf’s speech on Monday for concessions, but while he repeated an earlier promise not to let Pakistan be used as a base for terrorism, he denied that militants were crossing over the frontier and issued veiled threats of a nuclear response if India launched military action.
Jaswant Singh, the Indian Foreign Minister, said the speech was “disappointing as it merely repeats some earlier assurances that remain unfulfilled until today, and dangerous because through belligerent posturing tension has been added to, not reduced.”
He said Mr Vajpayee was unlikely to meet General Musharraf face-to-face until Pakistan cracked down on terrorism. “You cannot put a pistol of terrorism to my temple with the finger on the trigger and say ‘Dialogue with me or I will release the trigger’,” he declared.
But he raised the hope that conflict could still be avoided, indicating that India would begin to pull back hundreds of thousands of troops massed along the border if it saw evidence that General Musharraf’s promises were being implemented.
“If on the ground we find that action has been taken and it’s irreversible action, were General Musharraf to act on his own assurances, then India would reciprocate,” he told a press conference.
In order for that to happen, Pakistan would have to prove that it had stopped infiltration across the Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan; close down militant training camps and cut all financial and practical support to militant organisations.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.business-standard.com/updates/news.asp?story=5740
India Playing Dangerous Games In Pak, Kashmir - Musharraf
Business Standard - India
9-20-3

(PTI) -- Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of playing "dangerous" games in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan, and warned that it could provoke Pakistani retaliation and raise the spectre of a nuclear conflict.
"They must know that we can retaliate in a big way, and they should know that," Musharraf told a Canadian newspaper Toronto Star in an interview published on Saturday.
He also added that normalisation of relations with India without resolving the Kashmir is "Never! We can never normalize with India without addressing the Kashmir dispute," Musharraf said.
"They (Indians) should never presume that they can do things and they can go unchecked," he said adding the "risk of full-fledged conflict with India can never be ruled out in South Asia."
He, however, denied that Pakistan is planning a nuclear war against India. "No sane person can ever sit and plan that there will be a nuclear confrontation. We must never even think of that," Musharraf said in his characteristic blow-hot, blow-cold style.
"What is dangerous is whether there will be a conflict between India and Pakistan, which can then lead to a nuclear exchange," he said in the interview published ahead of Musahrraf's visit to Canada on September 25.
Musharraf also said that Islamic extremists were perverting their faith by waging reckless holy wars across the globe. He accused religious militants of "violating Islamic tenets", and called on fellow Muslims at the highest level to renounce terrorist acts perpetrated in the name of religion.
Copyright Business Standard Ltd.

[ABLAT Staff]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106479,00.html


Pakistan Says 'Ambition and Greed' Caused Nuke Secret Leak
Tuesday, December 23, 2003

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan (search) acknowledged Tuesday that several
of its nuclear scientists may have been motivated by "personal ambition and
greed" to share sensitive technology with Iran (search), but insisted the
government never authorized the transfer of such information.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan (search) said the government is
questioning a "very small number" of its scientists over the possibility
they spread sensitive technology to Iran.

The questioning, which began five or six weeks ago, was prompted by
information from Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"We had been approached by the IAEA. We had been given some information by
the government of Iran. The information that was shared with us pointed to
certain individuals and we had to hold the debriefing sessions," he told a
news conference.

"There are indications that certain individuals might have been motivated by
personal ambition or greed, but let me add we have not made a final
determination," he said. "Let's not jump to conclusions."

On Monday, the government said that the founder of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was being questioned in connection with
debriefings of other scientists, but was not in custody.

At least two scientists from Khan Research Laboratories, the country's top
nuclear laboratory named after its founder, were held for questioning this
month -- including Mohammad Farooq, its former director general and aide to
Khan, who is still being held.

[ABLAT Staff]

Iran: Pakistan Helping Saudis Develop Nukes
December 3, 2004
By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent

Official Iranian sources are claiming that they have information about Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signing an agreement in 2003 in which Pakistan promised to help Saudi Arabia develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.
The reports are coming out as Iran reached an agreement with the three European powers - the United Kingdom, Germany and France - about a cessation of uranium enrichment and the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of directors issues its report on Iran's nuclear activity.

The Iranian reports emphasize that the nuclear cooperation between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is at an advanced stage and that for the first time the Saudis have access to nuclear technology.

The international news agency United Press International (UPI) reported that Iranian Prof. Abu Mohammed Asgarkhani claimed in a lecture that Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear arms picked up after it learned about the Pakistani-Saudi deal and the possibility that Saudi Arabia would eventually acquire nuclear weapons.

Israeli and Western sources are not attributing much significance to the Saudi ability to develop, even partially, nuclear weapons.

Pakistan owes Saudi Arabia a great deal because Saudi Arabia essentially financed development of the Pakistani bomb. A Saudi representative may have been the only foreigner invited to visit Pakistan's nuclear facilities. Pakistan was also the middleman between Saudi Arabia and China for the purchase of long-range Chinese missiles. Those missiles, based in Saudi Arabia, have meanwhile become obsolete, and the Saudis want to upgrade them. The Americans told the Chinese that would be a violation of an agreement in which the Chinese promised not to sell missiles. The Chinese say it would not be a missile sale, but an upgrade of an existing missile sold a long time ago, but Washington remains opposed to the deal.

The Iranian reports about nuclear dealings between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is apparently motivated by Iran's interest in pointing out that other countries in the region are involved in military nuclear development and that they are not coming under international criticism because they are friends of the U.S.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeas...uclear_program/

[ABLAT Staff]

Pakistan Army Told to Fire at Intruding Americans
February 22, 2005
By Khalid Hasan
Daily Times


Washington: Pakistan has issued new rules of engagement permitting its Army
to fire at US forces that cross the border from Afghanistan without
coordinating first, according to a report contributed to the magazine
‘American Conservative’ by a former CIA officer.

Philip Giraldi, now an international security consultant and writer of
intelligence matters, writes in the February 28 issue of the magazine’s
‘Deep Background’ column that “President Musharraf has been receiving angry
reports from his military that US forces have been engaging in hot pursuit
across the border in violation of bilateral agreements.

Musharraf is also said to be unhappy about the recent abrupt withdrawal of
Predators and other surveillance resources from Pakistan for transfer to
Iraq for use against Iran. According to high level Pakistani sources,
Musharraf and his Army chiefs expended a great deal of political capital in
their support of the Al Qaeda hunt, clashing frequently with hostile
tribesmen along the border. The US Central Command’s January announcement
that the drones and other supporting surveillance technologies that were
being used against Al Qaeda would be withdrawn to support ‘elections in
Iraq,’ was an unpleasant surprise, particularly when ‘in Iraq’ turned out to
be a euphemism for ‘against Iran.

The drones have not yet been returned and many operations in the border
areas are reported to be on hold. Musharraf has had a difficult time
explaining to his own supporters in the military, and to the Pakistani
public, why he continues to be so supportive of US policies in the region.

Earlier Giraldi, quoting Seymour Hersch, reported in ‘Intelligence Brief,’ a
newsletter he co-edits that the White House has given the Pentagon
permission “to operate unilaterally in a number of countries where there is
a perception of a clear and evident terrorist threat,” including Algeria,
Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Malaysia and Tunisia. The chain of command reportedly
includes Donald Rumsfeld and two of his deputies.

Under these new arrangements, “US military operatives would be permitted to
pose abroad as corrupt foreign businessmen seeking to buy contraband items
that could be used in nuclear-weapons systems. In some cases, according to
the Pentagon advisers, local citizens could be recruited and asked to join
up with guerrillas or terrorists. This could potentially involve organising
and carrying out combat operations.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...22-2-2005_pg1_4

[ABLAT Staff]

India Plans to Expand Military Capabilities to Match China and Surpass
Pakistan Many Times
Feb. 25, 2005
Sudhir Chadda
India Daily


India is planning a major upgrade in Military hardware, software and overall
capabilities. The goal is to match China and not consider Pakistan as any
point of benchmark. Sources close to the Ministry of Defense, defense
Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Ministers office confirmed the fact that
India’s current goal is to be a region power matching the strength of China,
France and UK.

Reuters also reported similar analysis. According to Reuters, India is
planning to increase annual defense spending by at least 10 percent, Reuters
reported on Feb. 24 citing military experts. Expected purchases include six
French submarines, 126 combat aircraft, Israeli airborne radar systems,
Russian advanced rocket launcher systems and an Old Russian aircraft
carrier.

What is not reported in mainstream media is the fact that India is planning
an American style defense establishment. The private software and technology
companies will be allowed to come and build weapon systems matching the best
in the world. The Private industry will bring in Israeli, American, French
and Russian companies as collaborators and build world-class joint programs.

According to the current leaders in India, India’ real achievement lies in
the coexistence of equally efficient Public and Private industry in the
country. When Hindustan Aeronautics Limited works with privately Indian
software industry and build world-class missile systems, India shines in
true sense.

In addition to hardware acquisition, India plans to upgrade intelligence
effort in a massive way. India understands the futures war in the war will
be fought covertly, with field as well signal intelligence.

India plans to reduce the number of armed forces and make the forces
technically capable to the level of NATO. That is the long-term goal.
Current political and military leaderships understand that India will have
to compete in the long term with China, America and Russia. Though
technically the military may not match any of the three today, the goal is
to turn the table over in ten to fifteen years.

The six French submarines, 126 combat aircraft, Israeli airborne radar
systems, Russian advanced rocket launcher systems and an Old Russian
aircraft carrier will provide the necessary stopgap for a few years. That
will provide the Indian technocrats to create indigenous weapon systems that
will surprise the whole world.

The main goal in front of Indian political leadership is not to have any
confrontation with Pakistan or any other nation for the next ten years and
have a stable source of energy. That will provide India the opportunity to
become militarily equal to a superpower.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/1707.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

America gets first indication that Pakistan is knowingly hiding Taliban and Al-Queda leadership – is Bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Mussharaf’s guest house?
Balaji Reddy
Jun. 19, 2005






It is about time that truth comes out. America is getting early indication that Pakistan is knowingly allowing Taliban leadership to hide in Pakistan.

According to media sources, the outgoing US ambassador to Afghanistan has said there is a good chance Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is hiding in Pakistan and accused Islamabad of failing to act against fugitive Taliban leaders. Pakistan on Saturday described the comments by ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as "irresponsible".

Khalilzad had asked an interviewer why a Pakistani television channel could conduct an interview with a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, broadcast on Wednesday, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders.

"If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" Khalilzad said in his interview with Afghanistan's Aina television broadcast on Friday evening.

"There is a lot of chance that Mullah Omar and other senior Taliban are in Pakistan," he added. "Mr Usmani, who is one of the Taliban leaders, spoke to Pakistani Geo TV, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know where they were."

Geo TV did not say where its interview was held and Usmani's face was largely concealed by a black turban.

Khalilzad also questioned Pakistan's failure to find Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, who he said had given interviews from the Pakistani city of Quetta.

"It is very important for Pakistan to make every effort seriously," he said.

Khalilzad praised the efforts of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government in helping to arrest leaders of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, once harboured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but added: "We ask them to launch wide-ranging campaigns to detain the Taliban extremists."


http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3232.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

South Asia
Jun 22, 2005


Osama: 'Got him! (sort of)'
By B Raman

The exasperation of Porter Goss, the director of the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with Pakistan's role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members is evident from his remarks on bin Laden during an interview with Time magazine, which was carried this week.

The interview comes in the wake of the arrest of one Hamid Hayat, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, his father and some others by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) earlier this month. They belonged to a 2,500-strong Pakistani community living in Lodi, near Sacramento in California. Hamid and his father have been charged by the FBI with covering up from the law enforcement agency the fact that he attended a six-month jihadi training course at a camp near Rawalpindi during a visit to Pakistan in 2003-04.

Hamid was reported to have told the FBI that the camp was being run by al-Qaeda, but the indications are that it was actually run by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM - which now calls itself the Jamiat-ul-Ansar), a virulently anti-US Pakistani jihadi organization that is a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish People formed in 1998. Its then amir, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who was released by Pakistani authorities after being detained for some months last year without being prosecuted, was a co-signatory of bin Laden's first fatwa of 1998 against the US.

Pakistani authorities have sought to ridicule the FBI's charge against Hamid by pointing out that it was inconceivable that a jihadi training camp attended by hundreds of trainees, as claimed by him, could be located in or near Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan army's general headquarters are located.

Coincidentally, Yasin Malik, the head of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), one of the jihadi organizations in India's Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state, during a recent visit to Pakistan, revealed that hundreds of members of his organization had been trained in the late 1980s in a camp at the very same place, which was then run by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a Kashmiri, who used to be a member of the government of Nawaz Sharif and is now the minister for information in the cabinet headed by Shaukat Aziz.

Among the members of the present cabinet, Malik is considered very close to President General Pervez Musharraf. He has a long history of association with the HuM and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and obtained for the HuM a large plot of land near Rawalpindi for starting a jihadi training camp.

Embarrassed by the disclosure of Malik, Sheikh Rashid strongly denied running any such camp and maintained that he was only running a humanitarian camp for refugees from J&K. Malik also subsequently retracted his statement and accused the media of misreporting him. He asserted that what he had said was that Sheikh Rashid was looking after the refugees. He denied having said anything about jihadi training organized by Sheikh Rashid.

The outspoken Sheikh Rashid, who has many enemies in Pakistan because of his proximity to Musharraf and his habit of frequently dropping the name of Musharraf, found himself contradicted not only by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), during whose government the jihadi training camp was started, but also by General (retired) Mirza Aslam Beg, who was the chief of the army staff at that time; Brigadier (retired) Nasurullah Babar, who was the interior minister in Benazir Bhutto's cabinet; a former officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Khalid Khawaja; and Hashim Quereshi, a co-founder of the JKLF, who hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore in Pakistan in 1971.

While all of them asserted it was correct that Sheikh Rashid ran a jihadi training camp, the PPP revealed that the ISI, without clearance from Benazir, had hundreds of acres of land in the suburban areas of Islamabad transferred for starting the camp. Hashim Quereshi, who corroborated the allegations against Sheikh Rashid during a media interview, was asked whether any other member of the present cabinet had been associated with jihadi terrorism. He replied, "It would be easier to answer who are the members of the present cabinet who were not associated with terrorism?"

From a study of the various statements emanating from these persons, it is clear that the camp at which Hamid attended a jihadi training course was probably the one run by Sheikh Rashid on behalf of the HuM on a large plot of land transferred to him by the ISI. However, the name of the camp as given by Hamid in his statement to the FBI slightly differs from the name given by critics of Sheikh Rashid. According to the FBI, Hamid gave the name as Tamal, whereas the critics of Sheikh Rashid have given the name as Tarnol.

While the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon have been very generous in their praise of the cooperation received from Musharraf and the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment in the "war against terrorism", their positive perception of the Pakistani army's role is not shared by their officers at the field level - either by American army officers deployed in Afghan territory across the Pakistani border, or by US diplomats in Kabul, or by US intelligence officers posted in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan.

American army officers have been particularly outspoken in giving expression to their dissatisfaction over the effectiveness of the combing operations conducted by the Pakistani security forces in the Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The Pakistan army's claim that the security forces had fought vigorously against foreign terrorists who had taken shelter in this area, losing during their operations nearly 230 officers, has not been satisfactorily corroborated. There are grounds to suspect the casualty figures given by the Pakistan army.

During the past few months, the Pakistan army has practically suspended its combing operations in the area, claiming that most of the foreign terrorists operating from this area have been killed or captured or driven into Afghanistan. This claim is not accepted by US army officers, who demand that the combing operations be resumed.

The Pakistan army has also not taken any action to arrest Mullah Omar, the amir of the Taliban, and other Taliban leaders who are suspected of operating from the Pashtun areas of Balochistan province in Pakistan. Since the end of winter, these remnants, with the help of the survivors of al-Qaeda operating from the Waziristan area, have stepped up their acts of violence in Afghanistan. There have also been one or two acts of suicide terrorism, involving Arabs, suspected to be al-Qaeda.

The differences between the US officials in Afghanistan and their Pakistani counterparts came to a head last week when Geo TV, a private TV channel of Pakistan, interviewed a leader of the Taliban, who assured viewers that both Mullah Omar and bin Laden were alive and well. In an interview to an Afghan TV station, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Afghanistan who is under orders of transfer to Iraq, asserted that Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders were operating from Pakistan. He asked: "If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" The Pakistan Foreign Office strongly protested against Khalilzad's TV interview and described his remarks as irresponsible.

It is against this background that one has to see the comments of Porter Goss, which apparently reflect the exasperation of his own officers in the field. India has always said that Musharraf has not taken any action to dismantle the training infrastructure of pro-al-Qaeda Pakistani jihadi organizations in Pakistani territory. While this was not disputed by the US, it did not exercise adequate pressure on Musharraf to dismantle these camps because the US apparently felt that these were being used only to train jihadis to operate in J&K. The reported revelation by Hamid that these camps were also used to train jihadis from the Pakistani community in the US to operate in US territory has come as a shock to US agencies.

In his interview to Time, Goss made the following points: It is unlikely bin Laden will be brought to justice until "we strengthen all the links" in the chain in the US-led hunt for terror suspects. "In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links . When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community." Asked if he had a good idea where bin Laden was, he said, "I have an excellent idea of where he is."

He did not mention Pakistan by name, but it was apparent that he was talking of that country. On the Afghan side of the border, 16,000 US troops have the responsibility to hunt for bin Laden. If he was in Afghan territory, there would be no reason for Goss to talk of sanctuaries in sovereign states, weak links, etc. If bin Laden was in Iranian territory, there would be no reason not to name Iran, since US relations with Tehran are already at rock-bottom.

His reference to the need to work in unconventional ways in a conventional world is intriguing. Is he talking of the need for US special forces operating clandestinely on their own in Pakistani territory in order to kill or capture bin Laden, with or without the concurrence of Musharraf? Is the State Department refusing to agree to this? If he has such an excellent idea of where bin Laden is, why is the CIA not using Predator aircraft to kill him?

B Raman is additional secretary (retired), cabinet secretariat, government of India, New Delhi, and, presently, director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and distinguished fellow and convener, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. Email: itschen36@gmail.com

(Copyright 2005 B Raman)




http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GF22Df02.html

[ABLAT Staff]

The reason why America does not go into Pakistan and get Osama Bin Laden
Sonia Joshi
Jun. 21, 2005



It is the biggest puzzle of the free world. It is the biggest surprise for all in world. The CIA director says he knows where the man of terror is. But they just cannot get him right now. Most people believe Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan Border Mountains of Waziristan.

Pakistan’s Musharraf is dead against Al-Queda and he considers Osama Bin Laden as the enemy. So why is it that America just cannot go into Pakistan and get the man of terror?

The answer may lie in one simple word – nukes! Pakistan is a country loaded with small nuclear weapons of crude nature. But still these are nukes. America just cannot take some actions to make Pakistan unstable. That will be dangerous. If Musharraf is ousted, the nukes can get into the hands of the Islamic extremists including the agents of Osama Bin Laden. Osama can be captured but then the cost will be too high.

Instead, what is being done in a delicate fashion is to first secure the Pakistani nukes so that it is available for Pakistan’s self defense but is not available for the Islamic Jihadists to use as terror weapons.

These is the major loose end that one must fix before launching the Bin Laden capture mission.

Osama Bin Laden in the Waziristan and the Western tribal areas of Pakistan is really popular. That area constitutes 22% of Pakistani population. Antagonizing the 22% militarily active Pakistani population is risky if the Pakistani nukes are not secured.

There may be another reason, some think tanks point out. Osama Bin Laden is no longer really active. But many Al-Queda terror operators visit him regularly. Tracking them to him in Pakistan also provides Pakistanis and others a clear idea who these terrorists are.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3257.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

South Asia
Jun 22, 2005
Pakistan's lethal exports
By Kaushik Kapisthalam

From Australia to Europe to North America, a spate of arrests, trials and
convictions has brought to the world's attention the growing threat posed by
jihadis from Pakistan.

On June 5, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a pair of
Pakistani-Americans from the sleepy little farming town of Lodi, California.
Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, were later charged with
lying to the authorities regarding their connection with jihadi training
camps. But the formal FBI affidavit contained the bombshell piece of
information that the training camps in question were in Pakistan, not in the
notorious tribal areas, but right outside the city of Rawalpindi, which also
hosts the Pakistan army headquarters.

While the FBI later put out an amended affidavit, the original statement
released to the media named the person running the Rawalpindi terror camp as
"Maulana Fazlur Rehman". This was confusing because two prominent people
share that name in Pakistan. The first one is the secretary general of
Pakistan's opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance and the head
of a pro-Taliban group called Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam. Experts say, however,
that the affidavit likely describes another person, Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Khalil, a notorious terrorist leader.

Khalil is the chief patron of a group called Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM),
which was the first Pakistani jihadi group to be banned by the US in 1997,
when it was known as Harkat-ul-Ansar. While HuM is supposedly focused on
fighting Pakistan's covert war against India in the Kashmir region, it
gained prominence in 1998 when Khalil became the first Pakistani leader to
sign the fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden calling for attacks on US and
Western interests.

In 2003, the US government declassified 32 documents relating to the Taliban
and al-Qaeda. These included secret memos from the State Department and the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). One of the DIA documents noted, "[Osama]
bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was able to expand under the safe sanctuary
extended by Taliban following Pakistan directives. If there is any doubt on
that issue, consider the location of bin Laden's camp targeted by US cruise
missiles, Zahawa. Positioned on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,
it was built by Pakistani contractors, funded by Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence [ISI] directorate ... If this was later to become bin Laden's
base, then serious questions are raised by the early relationship between
bin Laden and Pakistan's ISI."

In 1998, US warships in the Arabian Sea launched cruise missiles on
"al-Qaeda" training camps in Afghanistan. However, at least one of the
targeted camps was a HuM facility, run in conjunction with Pakistani
military and intelligence officials. According to the US 9-11 Commission,
many HuM volunteers and a few Pakistani intelligence personnel were killed
during the missile attack. Soon after the strike, Khalil called a press
conference in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and threatened the US that
his men would attack Americans in their homes, just like the Americans
attacked them (HuM) in their own backyard. HuM continued to operate training
camps in eastern Afghanistan until US air strikes destroyed them during the
fall of 2001. In 2003, HuM began using the name Jamiat ul-Ansar.

Not the first time
The Lodi case is not the first time people suspected of links to
al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani jihadi groups have been arrested. Just a couple of
weeks before the Lodi arrests, American authorities deported a Pakistani man
named Khamal Muhammad. Muhammad, who was arrested in San Francisco for
immigration violations, later revealed that he had trained in a HuM camp and
learned to use pistols, rifles and grenades.

In 2003, American authorities broke up a terrorist cell in the state of
Virginia. During the subsequent trial, six men pleaded guilty, while three
more were convicted of terrorism-related charges. The men, belonging to
various ethnic backgrounds, admitted to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), the notorious Pakistani Salafist group that is also active in Indian
Kashmir. The US government released their indictment, which laid out the
dates and periods when they went to Pakistan to train in LeT's camps.

The "Virginia Jihad" indictment also pointed out that LeT's own website,
which keeps changing its address, said that the group had four facilities
for training mujahideen from around the world, including camps named
"Taiba", "Aqsa", "Um-al-Qur'a" and "Abdullah bin Masud". The trained LeT
fighters, the website claimed, participated in jihad in Afghanistan,
Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines. The website also
prominently displayed a banner portraying Lashkar-e-Taiba's dagger
penetrating the national flags of the United States, Russia, the United
Kingdom, India and Israel. In April 2005, American authorities secured the
conviction of a Salafist cleric named Ali al-Timimi, who was said to be the
mastermind behind the Virginia Jihad terror cell.

European links
Meanwhile, another Pakistani jihadi connection turned up in Europe. On June
16, Pakistan-born British citizen Ghulam Rama, 67, was convicted of the
crime of "terrorist conspiracy" in Paris. Rama was tied to Richard Reid, the
British Islamic jihadi close to al-Qaeda who tried to blow up a Paris-Miami
flight in December 2001 before being arrested. Interestingly, Reid is also
tied to another shadowy Pakistani jihadi group called Jamaat-ul-Fuqra. Rama
himself admitted to being an activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

LeT has many other links to Europe, France in particular. A French convert
to Islam named Willie Brigitte has been in the custody of anti-terrorism
authorities in France since 2003. Brigitte, who also went by the
nom-de-guerre "Salahuddin", was caught in Sydney, Australia, when he was
allegedly in the midst of planning a terrorist attack. Australian journalist
Ben English obtained the transcripts of Brigitte's secret trial in France.

During the trial, Brigitte told the French judge in charge that in 2002 he
trained along with many Pakistanis, European Muslim converts and American
and European nationals of Pakistani origin. Brigitte claimed that the
training, which included the use of explosives, small arms and terrorism
tactics was conducted in a sophisticated three-tiered mountain complex near
Pakistan's border with India. Brigitte also noted that the training was done
with the protection of the Pakistani army. The LeT itself was filled with
Pakistani army personnel and much of the weaponry and logistical supplies
for the training camp were provided by Pakistani soldiers, he noted.

Interestingly, Brigitte's statements were independently corroborated by
Yong-ki Kwon, a Korean-American convert to Islam who was one of the people
convicted in the Virginia Jihad case in the US. Kwon also noted that the
foreign LeT volunteers were accommodated at the sprawling 190 acre
headquarters in the Pakistani town of Muridke, near Lahore. Interestingly,
despite its known terrorist training facilities, Pakistani authorities have
not shut down the LeT's Muridke facility.

Pakistani jihadis have also been tied to successful terror attacks in
Europe. Abu Dahdah, chief of the Spanish-based al-Qaeda cell that helped
finance and organize the September 11 attacks, had links with Ali al-Timimi.
One of Dahdah's proteges, Jamal Zougam, is now under arrest in Spain in
connection with the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid. In September
2004, Spanish authorities cracked what they claimed to have been a cell of
Pakistanis who were funding al-Qaeda activities in Spain. The Pakistani cell
was tied to al-Qaeda's September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as
well as the jihadi group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which also is a Pakistani group
active in Kashmir.

Terror down under
Of all places, anti-terror experts have been surprised and alarmed by the
Pakistani jihad connection in Australia. As explained above, French terror
suspect Willie Brigitte was arrested in Australia. But before Brigitte,
Australians were shocked to find that one of their compatriots named David
Hicks was arrested by US authorities when he was fighting alongside the
Taliban forces, and was later found to have been trained at an LeT training
camp in Pakistan. Hicks also claimed that he was fighting alongside
Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir.

In April 2004, Australian authorities arrested a Pakistani man named Faheem
Khalid Lodhi in conjunction with the Brigitte case. Lodhi, who is now being
described by authorities as a LeT kingpin, was allegedly planning an attack
along with Brigitte aimed at high-value targets in Australia, including a
nuclear power plant outside Sydney. Lodhi had also allegedly recruited
another Pakistani man named Izhar ul-Haque as part of his operation. Lodhi
is currently undergoing trial and faces a life sentence if convicted.

Australia, of course, faced their own version of September 11 when dozens of
its citizens were killed in the 2002 bomb blast on the island of Bali,
Indonesia - a popular tourist destination for Australians. The Bali attack
was reportedly masterminded by a man called Hambali, who belongs to the
Indonesian jihadi group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). JI had made it clear that it
regards Australia as one of its terror targets.

It is interesting to note that the better-trained JI members were instructed
not in Indonesia, but in Pakistan, in camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
While Hambali was caught soon after the Bali attacks, his brother, who goes
by the name Gunawan, was arrested in Pakistan at the Abu Bakar University in
Karachi, which is affiliated with the LeT. Interestingly, Gunawan was on a
scholarship provided by the Pakistani government under a fake name "Abdul
Hadi". During interrogation, Gunawan revealed that he, along with Brigitte,
worked to transport some 200 Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai men to and from
LeT terror camps in Pakistan. Despite this, the LeT facilities in Karachi
remain open to date.

Kashmir 'jihad' backfires
For its part, the Pakistani government denies that there are any terrorist
camps in its territory. However, even Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid
Kasuri recently admitted during questioning that there were LeT terror camps
in Pakistan, but insisted that the government had closed them down. The
jihadi groups themselves, which still operate under new names despite being
"banned", regularly publish magazines and newsletters that give out the
phone numbers and addresses of their recruiters. Many former Pakistani
officials have also pointed out that the Pakistan government's denials lack
credibility. They note that Pakistan's continued support of Kashmir jihadi
elements effectively torpedoes any chances of removing al-Qaeda from
Pakistan, since jihadi groups do not tend to distinguish between Kashmir,
Afghanistan and the West. "To these tanzeems [outfits], Hindus, Jews and
Christians are all the same type of enemy," one Pakistani expert based in
the West noted.

Western terrorism analysts are still divided on what to make of the spate of
Pakistan jihad connections. Some tend to downplay the links between
Pakistani jihadis and al-Qaeda, noting that to date Pakistani jihadis have
not been successful in carrying out major operations outside Pakistan or
India. However, one American security official told Asia Times Online on the
condition of anonymity that similar arguments were made about bin Laden
before September 11. The official said further that the sheer number of
Pakistani jihadis arrested around the world is a worrying phenomenon that
indicates a "potential hole" in America's "war on terror". "We cannot let
the Pakistanis build a firewall around these guys, they are still terrorists
who hate America," the official insisted.

Experts say it is still too early to determine whether the Lodi suspects are
hardcore jihadis or just people caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.
One Pakistani American noted to Asia Times Online it is quite possible that
the Hayats were victims of internecine squabbles within the Pakistani
community in Lodi. But it is now becoming rapidly clear to homeland security
and law enforcement authorities in the US and elsewhere in the world that
there is just a thin line separating Pakistan's Kashmir "freedom fighters"
and al-Qaeda jihadis.

US homeland security officials are already looking for Pakistanis entering
the US with telltale signs of terror training, including rope marks around
their wrists or bruises indicative of paramilitary training. American
authorities are also cracking down on any monetary or material contribution
made by Pakistanis to Kashmir-linked Pakistani jihadi groups. Those who
materially support these outfits now will face a risk that they probably did
not bargain for - it is hard for authorities to tell a "good" terrorist from
a "bad" terrorist.

Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance defense and strategic affairs analyst
based in the United States. He can be reached at contact@kapisthalam.com

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GF22Df03.html

[ABLAT Staff]

Pakistan's ISI faction behind bringing US spy plane U2 down?
Sonia Joshi
Jun. 23, 2005

Who is responsible for bringing down the American spy plane U2 down? Was it a malfunction that caused the crash or was a human hand behind bringing it down over Pakistan? The world is struggling to get an answer. The flight is so classified that no one wants to talk about it. The U2 flies at a very high altitude sometimes as high as 70,000 feet. Who can bring it down really?

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) officials announced June 22 that a U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance jet crashed June 21 while returning from a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Though the CENTCOM spokesman did not elaborate as to the cause of the crash or as to the crash location given "host nation sensitivities," he said the crash site, later reported to have been in the United Arab Emirates, had been secured and the cause of the accident was under investigation. Given the U-2's performance record and the presumed location of the crash, it is unlikely that the aircraft was shot down. It is very possible, however, that the U-2 was supporting efforts to flush out fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

There are lots of hidden supporters of Al-Queda in Pakistan. The Musharraf Government considers Al-Queda as the enemy. But the question looms - is there a covert jihadist hand behind bringing the U2 down!


http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3293.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

India ready to prove Pakistan never dismantled terror camps and infrastructures
Sonia Chopra
Jul. 11, 2005

Pakistan is still operating the terror camps and infrastructure. India is ready to prove that.

Indian Minister for External Affairs Natwar Singh says he can provide photographic evidence to prove that militant training facilities have not been dismantled in Pakistan. In an interview aired July 11 by the British Broadcasting Corp., Singh also said several neighboring countries share India's concern. He said, however, that all the countries hope the peace process with Islamabad can move forward, "unless there is a terrorist attack like the one witnessed in London."


http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3536.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to expose Pakistan’s terror network to George Bush in the upcoming visit to Washington – will Bush listen?
Preetam Sohani
Jul. 15, 2005



America plans to provide Dr. Manmohan Singh, India’s Prime Minister, a red carpet treatment with all kinds of gestures to the newly found democratic friend – India. Nut India has some strict agenda in mind. India has taken strong note of latest infiltration bids and the rising graph of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. The issue would figure prominently during Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's three-day tour to Washington starting from Saturday. "Terrorism will be high on the agenda" during discussions Prime Minister Singh will have with President George W Bush and other leaders, said the Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran here on Wednesday.

Quoting Pakistani media reports, officials here say that after a brief lull, Pakistan has again rejuvenated militant infrastructure. They believe that it would be conveyed to the international community that these are not good omens for the peace process. According to figures available here with the Union Home Ministry, 915 people have lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir by July 10 and may surpass the figures of 1,810 reported in 2004.

Now the biggest question is Will Bush really listen and understand how Musharraf really fooled him and America. Experts say, Bush Administration will listen but not comment because the ties with Pakistan is too deep. And Pakistan also knows this. That is why they keep their anti-Indian terror network in the surface while Al-Queda and other Western terror networks have been asked to operate from under the ground.

India’s position will be clear. Friendship and warm gestures are great but first thing first. Pampering Pakistan and allowing it to have its terror network intact may not work for India. The recent infiltration from Pakistan and Bangladesh is making India wary. The sentiment is – make the American understand the real story. What good is to have a friend that forces India to keep quiet while its neighbor continue to wage covert war against her?


http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3607.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows.
To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=45812


Wednesday, August 17, 2005



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FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
How Pakistan's Dr. X
sold al-Qaida Islamic bomb
Khan armed bin Laden for his
'American Hiroshima' plan

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Posted: August 17, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Paul Williams, author of "Osama's Revenge" and a new book, "The Al Qaeda Connection," has stirred a national controversy with his reporting on the imminent nuclear terror threat posed by Osama bin Laden. In this exclusive dispatch, first published in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, he reveals the connections between Pakistan's nuclear mastermind and Osama bin Laden's plans for an "American Hiroshima."


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© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb" and the "godfather of nuclear proliferation," provided nuclear expertise, nuclear materials, and designs for atomic weapons to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to assist in the realization of the "American Hiroshima."

The American Hiroshima plan represents al-Qaida's plan for the nuclear destruction of the United States. It calls for the detonation of seven tactical nuclear devices in seven U.S. cities at the same time. Each device, according to the plan, must be equipped to produce an explosive yield of 10 kilotons to equal the 1945 blast in Hiroshima that killed 242,437 Japanese civilians.


News about Dr. Khan's involvement with al-Qaida and the American Hiroshima plan first emerged with the capture of several al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan in October 2001, during the first phase of Operation Enduring Freedom, and, later, with the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, bin Laden's military operations chief, in Karachi, Pakistan, March 2, 2003.

From Khalid Mohammad's laptop, CIA officials uncovered details of al-Qaida's plan to create a series of "nuclear hell storms" throughout the United States.

After days of interrogation coupled with severe sleep deprivation, Khalid Mohammad told U.S. intelligence officials that the chain of command for the "American Hiroshima" answered directly to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and a mysterious scientist whom he, at first, referred to as "Dr. X," but later identified as Dr. Khan.

Tim Burger and Tim McGirk in the May 12, 2003, edition of Time managed to confirm that at least one meeting between Dr. Khan and bin Laden occurred within a safe house in Kabul.

The Real Dr. Strangelove

Dr. A.Q. Khan spearheaded Pakistan's effort to build nuclear weapons to stabilize the nuclear threat from India. Five atomic bombs, developed by Khan, were successfully detonated beneath the scorched hills of the Baluchistan desert in 1998.

Khan, who went on to work on the successful firings of the nuclear-capable Ghaudi I and II missiles, remains a revered figure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where his birthday is celebrated in mosques.

After gaining a place for Pakistan within the elite nuclear club of nations along with the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France, India and Israel, Khan proceeded to sell his centrifuge technology for the enrichment of uranium and his designs for atomic weapons to such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Sudan, and such rogue nations as North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Abundant evidence exists that the list of Khan's customers should be expanded to include Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Kuwait, Myanmar, and Abu Dubai.

More information was squeezed out of Khalid Mohammad in subsequent months, including accounts of continuous visits by bin Laden and company to the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan, where they gained the assistance of such renowned nuclear physicists, including Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, chairman of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr. Mahmood's Confession

Mahmood was taken into custody by Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence and CIA agents Oct. 23, 2001. After months of questioning, Mahmood at last admitted that he had met with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other al-Qaida officials on several occasions, including the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001, to discuss the means of speeding up the process of manufacturing nukes from the highly enriched uranium that al-Qaida had obtained from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other sources.

Mahmood insisted that he had provided answers to technical questions concerning tactical nuclear weapons but declined to provide bin Laden actual hands-on help for the creation of such devices. Upon voicing this denial, Mahmood was subjected to six lie-detector tests. He failed them all.

The Nuclear Nest

Throughout 2002, CIA and ISI officials obtained more and more information concerning the involvement of scientists from the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories in the plans for the American Hiroshima. After being threatened with seven years in prison under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majid, PAEC's chief engineer, admitted that he met with bin Laden and other al-Qaida officials on a regular basis to provide technical assistance for the construction and care of its nuclear weapons. Dr. Mirza Yusuf Baig, another PAEC engineer, made a similar confession.

Yet a host of other leading scientists and technicians from Khan's facility have managed to elude arrest and interrogation by quietly slipping out of the country. Dr. Mohammad Ali Mukhtar and Dr. Suleiman Assad, nuclear engineers and close colleagues of Khan and Mahmood, escaped to Myanmar, where they are currently engaged in building a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor for the Third World country. Others have made off for unknown destinations. The list of such "absconders" includes the names of Muhammad Zubair, Murad Qasim, Tariq Mahmood, Saeed Akhther, Imtaz Baig, Waheed Nasir, Munawar Ismail, Shaheen Fareed, and Khalid Mahmood.

The Missing Nukes

Still, the interrogations of the Pakistani scientists, coupled with findings from Dr. Mahmood's office for "charitable affairs" in Kabul, verified for the CIA that al-Qaida had produced several nuclear weapons from highly enriched uranium and plutonium pellets the size of silver dollars at Khan's facilities. At least one of these weapons was transported to Karachi where it was shipped to the United States in a cargo container.

The story of the deployed nuke was reported by Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times Dec. 10, 2001. It was carried by United Press International but received little play in the national press and garnered scant attention from such major news outlets as ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN.


The whereabouts of the weapon remains a mystery. There are more than 18 million potential delivery vehicles that could be used to bring the nuke into the U.S. This figure represents the number of cargo containers that arrive into the country every year. Of these containers, only 3 percent are inspected. Moreover, the bills of lading do not have to be produced until the containers reach their place of destination.

News about other tactical nuclear weapons developed by Khan's facilities for bin Laden came with the arrest of Sharif al Masri in Pakistan in November 2004. Al Masri, an al-Qaida operative with close ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri, informed CIA interrogators that a number of nukes had been deployed to Mexico where arrangements had been made with a Latino street gang for their safe transport into the U.S. This story, which appeared in the Nov. 17 issue of the Nation, also failed to capture widespread press attention.

Khan's 'Mea Culpa'

On Feb. 4, 2004, Khan, after being confronted with tell-tale evidence obtained by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, issued a public statement in which he confessed that he had sold blueprints for nuclear weapons to Libya, North Korea and Iran. He expressed "the deepest sense of sorrow and anguish" that he had placed Pakistan's national security in jeopardy. "I have much to answer for," he said.

Pakistan's federal cabinet and President Pervez Musharraf responded to Khan's confession by granting the esteemed scientist a full pardon for his acts of nuclear proliferation. Musharraf said that Khan and the scientists who worked with him were motivated by "money." The pardon, according to many observers, represented an attempt by the Musharraf government to appease Islamic extremists and senior Pakistani military officials who believe that Musharraf had become a traitor to the Muslim people by providing military support and assistance to the Bush administration.

Khan remains a free and honored citizen of Pakistan, where neither U.S. military officials nor CIA agents can obtain the right to approach or question him. This situation has prompted Robert Gallucci, former U.N. weapons inspector and dean of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, to observe: "The most dangerous country for the U.S. now is Pakistan. ... We haven't been this vulnerable since the British burned Washington in 1814."

Coda

The story of Dr. A.Q. Khan's relationship with al-Qaida comes with a coda. Acclaimed French journalist Bernard-Henri Levy amassed considerable evidence that ISI officials executed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after Pearl obtained inside information on the close relationship between Khan and bin Laden, the trafficking of nuclear materials from Khan's facility near Islamabad to al-Qaida cells in Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and the plans for the American Hiroshima.



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=45812

[ABLAT Staff]

As the day of Bin Laden’s capture nears, Pakistan’s Musharraf gets nervous
Nancy Oberois
Sep. 26, 2005



Why is Pakistan’s Musharraf so nervous about capturing Bin Laden? Some international think tanks believe, the Pakistani President and Chief of military may be signaling that days of Bin Laden’s hiding may be over.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he would like Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden captured outside his country and by "some other people." "One would prefer that he's captured somewhere outside Pakistan. By some other people," Musharraf told Time magazine in an interview. As for bin Laden's whereabouts, Musharraf said he does not know anything at the moment. "The reality is that about a year ago, we had some identification of a rough area where he was, through technical means, but then we lost him. "That is how intelligence works. You can get to a person immediately, or you can just lose him immediately," he said. "I think the safest place would be on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, because this line we are not including in each other's areas, so therefore you can easily switch sides," he said. Musharraf admitted that not all Pakistanis like the US. "This may sound a little odd, while I would, honestly speaking, say that the man on the street does not have a good opinion of the United States, at the same time, if you ask the man on the street whether he agrees with my policies, I know the vast majority agree with my policies." "So you might take this to mean they understand that whatever I am doing is in our national interest and we are following the right course."
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/4749.asp

[ABLAT Staff]

As Al-Queda shifts base from Pakistan-Afghanistan to Bangladesh, it emerges the biggest terror threat for India and the world
Kiran Chaube
Nov. 30, 2005

Al_Queda is slowly and silently shifting nits operational base to Bangladesh and South Western China. Bangladesh now has become the terror capital of the world with thousands of terror camps all around the country.

According to media reports, Bangladesh is emerging as a bigger worry than Pakistan, Director General of BSF R.S. Mooshahary said today. The BSF chief was talking to reporters here. BSF guards the 4,000-km-odd Indo-Bangla border and is also present along the LoC in the Indo-Pak border with the Army.

‘‘Bangladesh will soon pose a bigger problem than Pakistan,’’ Mooshahary said, adding that the Indo-Bangla border is more difficult to man than the Indo-Pak border. ‘‘At the Pakistan border, both the Army and BSF are deployed, whereas the Indo-Bangla border is manned solely by BSF.”

He also admitted that illegal migration into North-East is continuing and in order to address the issue of infiltration, BSF has sought to raise an additional battalion of women. ‘‘I’ve sought the Home Ministry’s permission to raise a women’s battalion to deal with infiltrators, many of whom are women,’’ he said.

India is sure that there are about 172 terror camps operating in Bangladesh and that 307 ‘‘wanted-people’’, including top ULFA leaders Paresh Baruah and Arvind Rajkhowa, are in Bangladesh, he said, adding that “Dhaka has denied their presence without verifying the details given to them.”


http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/5757.asp