Title: Al Qaida, Taliban cadres in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Author: Rezaul H. Laskar
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: Mar 22, 2002
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/020321/43/1jcn3.html

New Delhi, Mar 21 (IANS) A majority of the Taliban and Al Qaida fighters airlifted from Afghanistan by Islamabad are currently in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, highly placed Indian military sources have said.

"These terrorists are currently holed up in the northern parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, including areas opposite Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir state," said a senior military intelligence official who did not want to be named.

"They are being sheltered in areas that are away from the media glare," the official told IANS. "There are no indications as to what Pakistan plans to do with these terrorists but they possibility that they may be pushed into Kashmir cannot be ruled out."

When Pakistani military and intelligence advisors and mujahideen were cornered in Kunduz in Afghanistan along with thousands of Taliban and Al Qaida fighters in November last year, Pakistan mounted several night-time airlifts to whisk them to safety.

Indian and Western media carried extensive reports about the airlifts and Indian National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra told New Yorker magazine that at least 5,000 Taliban and Pakistani fighters had been rescued from Kunduz.

Western and Indian intelligence agencies believe Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is manned largely by Pakistani Army officers, was largely responsible for propping up the Taliban regime.

Indian intelligence agencies also believe at least half the 8,000 people trapped in Kunduz before its fall November 24 last year were Pakistanis. Mishra said that New Delhi sent diplomatic notes protesting the airlifts to Britain and the U.S.

Some of the Taliban and Al Qaida fighters rescued from Kunduz are currently battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan's Gardez area.

The Indian official said Pakistan had not stopped its efforts to push terrorists into Kashmir despite President Pervez Musharraf's promise to act against Islamic fundamentalist and terror groups.

"If you look at the number of terror attacks before January 12 and after that, there really hasn't been any change," he said, referring to the commitment made by Musharraf to crack down on terror groups in the course of an address to the people of Pakistan January 12.

"There hasn't been a drastic change in the number of terror and suicide attacks and bomb explosions both before and after January 12."

The official pointed out that there were nine attempts by Pakistan to push terrorists into Kashmir in march last year, and said five similar efforts had been made this month.

A clearer picture about the operations of Pakistan-backed terror groups active in Kashmir is expected to emerge only after the snows melt on Himalayan passes into the state, the official said.

"The passes will open only after the snows melt by early May, and only then will be able to make an assessment of Musharraf's plans for Kashmir. We will know whether he plans to stop sending in the militants or if things will become as they were earlier," he said.

Indian military commanders, however, believe they are in for another "hot summer."

"There are plenty of indications that Pakistan intends to keep the Kashmir pot boiling," said a senior Indian Army official, referring to reports from Islamabad that the Pakistan government planned to release detained leaders of the Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terror groups.

Reports emanating from Islamabad Tuesday said the Pakistan government might release leaders of the Jaish and Lashker, blamed for the December 13 terror attack on India's Parliament, as no charges have been filed against them.

The leaders had been detained as part of Islamabad's crackdown on terror groups after the September 11 terror attacks in the U.S.

Pakistan has already freed fundamentalist leaders like Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to counter the backlash to its crackdown on terror groups.