[CarrotAndStick]

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/04let.htm

Lashkar acts as a secret police for Al Qaeda, says report

August 04, 2003 17:51 IST


The Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting as a 'secret police' for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, American and Indian intelligence officials say.

A US congressional paper on homeland security quotes former officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian agencies as saying that the recent arrest of eleven men in Virginia, allegedly connected with the Lashkar, raises the prospects of 'a new terrorist threat in the United States'.

A special report in the congressional quarterly homeland security quotes the FBI's former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence, Harry B 'Skip' Brandon, as saying that

Kashmiri terrorists, who used to raise funds in America earlier for the fight back home, switched over to providing 'other material support' to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Brandon says the US intelligence 'are not just focussed on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but also groups affiliated to them'.

The paper quotes Selig Harrison, head of Asia Project at Washington-based Centre for International Policy, as saying that before the 9/11 attacks, 'I was told by a top source in the state department that the Lashkar was serving (as) a secret police function for the Taliban'.

The report quotes former additional secretary in Cabinet Secretariat B Raman as saying that the Lashkar headquarters at Muridke (Pakistan) had 'a guesthouse and a mosque constructed with funds provided by Osama bin Laden'.

"Before he fell foul of the US, Laden stayed in this guesthouse during his visits to Pakistan," Raman says.

He further says the Lashkar is 'building up its clandestine infrastructure in the US and will continue to do so'.

Regarding chances that the Lashkar will participate in an attack on the US, Brandon says, "It is not outside the realm of possibility that it could pose a threat to US homeland security. If you had asked me four or five years ago, I would have said it was highly unlikely as they are interested only in Kashmir.

"But radical Islamic terrorism has given things a new twist and the authorities are gradually seeing a blurring of the lines between terrorist groups."

While Raman feels they will themselves not participate in an attack on the US 'for the present', Teresita Schaffer, director of South Asia programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says her impression is that the Lashkar is 'more interested in their own homeland'.

Raman, however, warns that the outfit will continue to 'guide, train, fund and coordinate other members of Laden's International Islamic Front and Al Qaeda remnants wanting to launch attacks in the US without directly coming into the picture itself'.


© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

[CarrotAndStick]

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jul202005/editpage177532005719.asp


Terrorism back in full swing
ISI-LeT nexus exposed

By G Parthasarathy

Is India prepared to face the challenge of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism within the country?



Barely a year ago, the former Director General of the ISI, Lt General Hamid Gul, told a friend of mine that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had succeeded in establishing over three hundred ‘sleeper cells’ to mount terrorist strikes in towns and cities across India. Similarly, I was also told by a former ISI chief that he was confident that the jihad in Kashmir would be made an issue of faith and religion in the minds of the Muslims of India. Another ISI chief proudly proclaimed that it was the aim of the ISI to “weaken India from within”. He said that he had no doubt that it would succeed in achieving this aim. Amongst the terrorist groups that Pakistan has used in its ‘proxy war’ against India, the Lashkar has played the most dangerous role. It has been involved in the attack on the Red Fort on December 26, 2000, and in several terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, including the attack on the Corps Headquarters and the State Assembly in Srinagar. It has also attacked the religious complexes in Akshardham and Ayodhya.

Despite continuing evidence of the links between the ISI and the LeT, successive Governments in New Delhi have not developed any coherent strategy to deal with the threat that this organisation poses. What exactly are the aims of the Lashkar-e-Taiba? Its parent body, the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad, was set up in 1987, inspired by the role of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Like bin Laden, the Markaz received ISI and CIA support to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

Its leader was a professor at the Lahore University of Engineering and Technology, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. Receiving patronage from the ISI and bin Laden, Saeed had set up a 190-acre complex at Muridhke near Lahore, where he preached hatred of all ‘Kaffirs’, especially “Hindus, Jews and Christians”, who were declared “enemies of Islam”. Around 1996, the ISI started using Lashkar cadres for its ‘jihad’ in Kashmir. Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif had great regard for the Lashkar. His information minister, Mushahid Hussain (now secretary general of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim league), was a regular visitor to Muridhke.


Hafiz Saeed had also vowed that the objective of the LeT was not just to wage a jihad in J&K, but also to create three Muslim homelands, with Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir constituting one, the Muslims of North India constituting the second and the Muslims of South India forming the third. On February 18, 1996, Hafiz Saeed declared: “The jihad in Kashmir would soon spread to the entire India. Our mujahideen would create three Pakistans in India.”

On October 9, 1997, he claimed that after J&K was liberated, “Indian Muslims should be aroused to rise in revolt against the Indian Union so that India gets disintegrated”. A few months later, in February 1998, Osama bin Laden formed the ‘International Islamic Front for jihad against Jews and Crusaders’, aimed at mounting terrorist strikes against the American and Israeli interests. The Lashkar-e-Taiba became a founding member of this Front and proclaimed that its aim was to “unfurl the green flag of Islam in Washington, Tel Aviv and Delhi”. When the Lashkar-e-Taiba attacked the Red Fort in Delhi, Hafiz Saeed proudly boasted that he had succeeded in unfurling the green flag of Islam in New Delhi. Further, after the recent gunning down of Lashkar terrorists in New Delhi, it is now clear that the potential is being developed to attack targets ranging from Information Technology centres in Bangalore to the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun.

Muslim youth from all over the world have been indoctrinated by the LeT to fight against ‘Kaffirs’ all over the world. Its volunteers have fought in Bosnia and Chechnya, and have also joined the resistance against American forces in Iraq. The LeT’s cadres have been arrested in Australia and the United States. There is evidence that the London bomb explosions of July 7 were the handiwork of young men of Pakistani origin who had visited Muridhke.

Despite substantial evidence about the activities of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, neither the United States nor the UK declared it a terrorist organisation until the December 13 attack on India’s Parliament. Both these countries felt that they would be spared the wrath of this organisation by ignoring its terrorist activities in places like India, Bosnia and Chechnya. They also have turned a blind eye to the links that the Lashkar has developed in Saudi Arabia, from where it receives financial support.

Both the US and the UK take a rather charitable attitude when it comes to issues of terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and terrorist funding from Saudi Arabia. One hopes that they will learn some lessons on this score after the recent arrest of Pakistanis who had been trained by the Lashkar and had settled in California, and also in the light of the July 7 London bomb blasts.

New evidence has now emerged of increased ISI assistance to extremist and terrorist elements. It is well known that extremists of the Babbar Khalsa, including some involved in the assassination of the former Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Beant Singh, function out of the Dera Sahib Gurudwara in Lahore. Inciting Sikh pilgrims with slogans of ‘Khalistan’ has been a continuing feature of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Hence the keenness of General Musharraf for an Amritsar-Lahore bus service.

We are now seeing the revival of Babbar Khalsa activities in India, with bomb blasts in Delhi movie theatres and the reactivation of its armed cadres in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. This has come along with an increasing infiltration of terrorists across the Line of Control (LoC), despite efforts by India to limit such infiltration by fencing up the LoC and installing sensors along it. Pakistan is now set to step up its assistance to terrorist and separatist groups across India. Is New Delhi ready to meet this challenge?