Despite Covid, Pak keeps up its terror programme
Inputs on 11 camps in PoK, 2 in Punjab in Pak and 3 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
NEW DELHI: Pakistan, which has confirmed around 13,000 Covid-19 cases, is nevertheless keeping up efforts to target India, with as many as 16 terror training camps operating within the country and launch pads ready for the infiltration of jihadists across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
Available intelligence inputs with Indian security agencies indicate that out of 16 camps, 11 are functioning in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), two in Punjab, Pakistan and three in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) region.
Out of the 11 camps in PoK, seven belong to mixed groups, three are dedicated to training Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and one to training Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists, HT has learnt. In the KPK region, two belong to HM and one to the proscribed Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) group. LeT and JeM run one camp each in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
These camps are preparing armed jihadists for infiltration into J&K with the sole motive of stirring up trouble in the Kashmir Valley. There are as many as 86 launching pads, or detachments, along the LoC in the Srinagar sector, Rajouri-Poonch and the Jammu sector across the international border.
In the Srinagar sector, 10 out of 51 pads are occupied by terrorists belonging to LeT, JeM, HM, Al-Badr and other sundry groups. In the Rajouri-Poonch sector, three out of 13 pads across the LoC are occupied; one out of the four pads in the Jammu sector is occupied, largely by terrorists belonging to the LeT, JeM and HM.
While the plan of the Pakistani deep state is to recruit as many local radicalised youth as possible in the Valley, there are an estimated 450 terrorists at the launch pads ready to infiltrate into J&K; they include 244 men of LeT; 120 of JeM and 60 of HM .
These infiltrators will beef up the present terrorist strength of 242 (138 local and 104 foreign) present in the Union territory. Out of 104 foreign terrorists, 62 belong to LeT and 36 are part of the JeM. “Pakistan Army has no options but to continue with jihad in Kashmir, else the public will start focusing on the poor domestic situation on the economic and Covid-19 response front and start questioning the leadership,” said a senior Indian general on condition of anonymity.
Even though the Rawalpindi general headquarters plans to underplay its role by projecting local participation through the newly formed Resistance Front and Tehreek-e-Milat-e-Islami (TMI), Pakistani terrorists are being infiltrated to ensure things don’t go south in the Valley.
Besides this, a sustained effort will be launched by the Imran Khan government to raise Kashmir issue at multilateral forums including a petition through a non-government organisation in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, apart from routinely moving the United Nations Security Council