Chapter 6: Pakistan's Support to Terrorism

The plans are hatched in Pakistan and executed through Pakistani agents provocateur and such Kashmiri young men who have been lured, bribed, trapped or coerced, motivated or misguided into becoming militants. Pakistan Army Rangers and the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with its field units have been conducting and directing the programs of subversion. Pakistan has been training and arming the militants, providing funds, affording refuge and safe havens to the militants, as also setting up rapid communication systems. Backing the militants is a well orchestrated multi-media propaganda campaign with twin objectives: beamed to the militants in the Kashmir Valley the purpose is to stoke the fires of militancy and keep secessionism alive; in the international arena the intention is to damage the image of India.

Kashmiri youth are taken surreptitiously across the line of control to Pakistan occupied Kashmir and to Pakistan. There they are trained for subversion, equipped with weapons as also indoctrinated. Thereafter, they are infiltrated back into Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan Army often provides covering fire for such infiltrators across the line of control.

Before the newly-recruited militants are sent to POK or Pakistan they are given code names to conceal their identity or they are provided with fake identity cards to cover them up as government employees. They are usually picked up in small batches from predetermined places and escorted to the line of control on foot and thereon to some transit camps.

In the transit Camps, motivational films are screened, copies of the Holy Quran are distributed and religious and fanatical songs with anti-India strains are sung. From the transit camps the recruits are moved to the training centers. Usually they are taken blindfolded or in fully covered trucks to make sure that they can neither identify the training sites nor the roads leading to them.

Motivation is an essential part of the training. Firebrand ulemas acting as coordinators and Mujahideen leaders are invited to speak to the recruits exhorting them to jehad. On the conclusion of the training the militants are returned to the transit camps. Once again they travel blindfolded or in covered trucks. Each trainee is given assorted weapons at the staging areas. Finally they are taken back to the line of control. The Pakistan ISI guides help the militants in finding their way through forests and mountain passes through which runs the line of control from where they can be collected later.

TRAINING CAMPS

Nevertheless it is always hazardous crossing the line of control. The militants are apprehended by the Indian security forces. A number of them have been killed while crossing the line. Some of those apprehended make confessions or provide revealing information under interrogation. But still many sneak across the undulating thickly-forested terrain. To train and indoctrinate the militants Pakistan has set up training centers located in (rebel-held) Afghanistan close to the Pak-Afghan border. Over 105 such training camps - 48 in Pakistan, 49 in POK and eight on the Pak- Afghan border - have come to the notice of Indian authorities. Pakistan has been running more than 50 transit camps either in Pakistan itself or in POK to hold the trainees before they are dispersed to various training centers.

Training is imparted by Pakistani instructors or by those of the Kashmiri militants who have graduated after intensive training. The training covers subjects like subversion and sabotage use of explosives, techniques of destroying vital installations like railway lines, bridges, oil tankers, power houses etc. To toughen the militants and give them "battle inoculation", some trainees are sent to the Pak-Afghanistan border under the banner of Harkat-e- Mujahideen where they are made to fight in simulated battle conditions. Some of the selected militants are primed for a longer period and are intended to attain greater competence in the methods of guerrilla warfare, laying of land mines, handling of remote control devices with special emphasis on extensive use of improvised explosive devises and wireless communication. Operating sensitive high-frequency wireless communication sets is another item of specialized training.

The pattern of arms training has been changing. Earlier the elementary training for seven to ten days included introduction to AK-47 rifles, Chinese pistols, rocket launchers use of light machine guns and explosives. Techniques of ambushing concealment reconnaissance and intelligence gathering were also covered. Included in this program was indoctrination for armed struggle. This was achieved through lectures and video films.

Training at the centers is now handled entirely by the Pakistan Army and the ISI. Multiple training programs, dovetailing basic arms training with long duration specialized schedules, have been organized. There are extended training courses of two to twelve weeks incorporating the use of sophisticated heavy weapons including rocket launchers, MMG/LMG/AK-47/56/74, sniper rifles, mortars, remote control devices anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. The operation and control of high explosives, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns, etc., are also included in the schedule. Courses in rock climbing mountaineering survival in jungles as also mock exercises for border crossing including first aid and paramedical training are conducted. Video cassette films on commando operations are screened at the training centers. Simultaneously, the Pakistani army has been imparting wireless communication training (Morse and computer-based data mode) for four to twelve weeks to ensure that trained staff is available to maintain direct links between the Kashmir militants and the Pakistan authorities.

ARMS SUPPLY: PROGRESSIVE INCREASE

Recently, the training schedule was further streamlined and extended for selected groups from six months to a year. Selected young militants are taken to Pakistan Army camps along the line of control where they are trained for over six months through intensive firing exercises. In some makeshift training camps inside Pakistan stress is laid on the practical handling of explosive devices. Emphasis is now laid on achieving tough physical standards and the development of leadership qualities. Educated militant youth, preferably with scientific and technical background are imparted specialized and prolonged training. The use of new weapons including SVD Dragnov sniper rifles, 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and 82 mm mortars is taught.

Pakistani-supplied arms and weapons seized every now and then on the border and the line of control as also obtained from the hideouts of militants provide tangible evidence of the Pakistan hand. The seizure of weapons recorded year after year shows a progressive increase in their supply. These arms are procured partly from Pakistan Army and intelligence establishments; siphoned off from the supplies Pakistan received for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan; and a few from the arms bazaars in the North West Frontier Province.

Pakistan has been training thousands of Kashmiri terrorists, supplying arms and ammunition to them, providing financial assistance as also monetary inducements to the trainees. Couriers and guides have been provided by Pakistan. Necessary support facilities like office accommodation, telephones, wireless communications safe havens have also been made available. This has been confirmed and cross checked with various militants who have been captured by the Indian security forces.

The present situation in Kashmir has been created by Pakistan's support to terrorism. This support to religion-based terrorism is not only an attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo on the ground but also to undermine India's secular fabric. Pakistan's denial of its involvement is not convincing. In 1948 Pakistan denied that it was sending tribals and armed people into Kashmir. The Security Council resolution of August 1948 documented the Pakistan aggression when it stated: "The presence of troops of Pakistan in the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir constitutes a material change in the situation since it was represented by the government of Pakistan before the Security Council. Pakistan had then too asserted that disturbances in the valley were the result of an internal uprising.

OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE

In 1965, Pakistan similarly denied that it had sent armed infiltrators. The arson sabotage and killings by the infiltrators were again attributed by Pakistan to internal uprising in Kashmir. It persisted with this charade before the Security Council even though the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan and independent observers documented that massive infiltration of armed personnel had taken place. Subsequently the Pakistani leaders themselves boasted of having sent in the infiltrators. Today Pakistan is once again denying involvement with terrorism. In the face of the overwhelming evidence of overt and covert support, and the history of Pakistan's past deceptions in this regard, there can be no genuine takers for the Pakistani propaganda line.