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| Sunday, 2 June 2002 |
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India says al Qaeda moving to Pakistani Kashmir NEW DELHI, May 31 (Reuters) - A large number of al Qaeda militants have moved to Pakistani Kashmir from Afghanistan and have joined separatists opposed to Indian rule in its part of Kashmir, Indian defence officials said on Friday. Some of the militants have set up base close to a ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces in the disputed Himalayan region but there was no evidence any of the al Qaeda members had crossed into Indian Kashmir, a defence official said. The Indian officials, citing military intelligence reports from Pakistani Kashmir, said the al Qaeda members moving to the region were evading U.S. and Pakistani security forces hunting for them elsewhere in Pakistan. "There are a plethora of reports from premier (intelligence) agencies that al Qaeda has merged with terrorist camps there," a senior defence official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "They have obviously shifted to areas lesser developed and where the law and order situation is far more looser. The al Qaeda network, led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, has been blamed by the United States for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Some Indian officials have in the past said al Qaeda members were shifting to Pakistani Kashmir but Western diplomats had said there was no evidence of that. Earlier this week, USA Today newspaper, citing U.S. intelligence officials and foreign diplomats, said al Qaeda and Taliban members were helping to organise a terror campaign in disputed Kashmir to stir up trouble between India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan have massed a million troops on their frontier from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for an attack on its parliament in December. New Delhi has demanded Islamabad stop infiltration of Muslim rebels from Pakistani Kashmir to Indian Kashmir and that it hand over 20 terrorist and criminal suspects to end the confrontation. Tension soared again in mid May after a bloody attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir that India again blamed on Pakistan-based rebels. Pakistan denies that it foments violence across the border and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said last week there was no infiltration of militants into Indian Kashmir. Musharraf promised in January to crack down on the militants and said Pakistan could not be used as a base for attacks on other countries. In recent days U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders have stepped up pressure on Musharraf, urging him to stop the rebel infiltrators. The Indian official said there was a "slight hiatus" in infiltration after Musharraf's January statement. But he said the fall in infiltration was because of heavy snow in the mountainous Kashmir region, the large number of Indian troops on the frontier and confusion among militants over the Pakistani crackdown. "But come April and May the level of infiltration and violence is absolutely the same, if not higher, as in the past," the official said. "It is too early to say if there is a fall in infiltration in the past one week following the heavy international pressure on Pakistan." |
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