Yatish Yadav By

Far away from the eyes of the world, Pakistan’s rogue spy agency ISI is preparing to escalate proxy war against India by nurturing terror sanctuaries in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. Only Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can’t see it. Last week, he conveniently played the victim at the UN Assembly but India was quick to remind Pakistan that it was using terror as part of its statecraft. With PM Narendra Modi and NSA Ajit Doval at the helm of affairs, the government has prepared an elaborate dossier on the basis of evidence collected by the security establishment. Pakistan’s ties to terrorists are well known, but now the international community can see for itself how extremists enjoying the protection of the ISI operate in sanctuaries deep inside Pak where they train and plan attacks against India.

Just across the border in PoK, the ISI and Pak state actors are providing what they informally called ‘technical assistance’ to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists housed in specially-built terror training camps. Both the Pak government and the Army refuse to acknowledge that terrorists are operating from its soil, despite many of them turning against Pakistan itself in attacks that inflict brutal casualties. Notwithstanding Sharif’s forced amnesia about the terror wombs, the Indian government has decided to bring them to justice by exposing Pakistan at the international forum. The Sunday Standard has learnt that the NDA government has prepared fresh evidence against Pak-sponsored terror camps that continue to bleed India. It is no surprise that the Pakistani government has known about these locations for long but has never found mention in ‘arb-i- Ab’, the Pakistani Army’s much publicised offensive against various militant groups in North Waziristan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Terror Sanctuaries

Dulai, a picturesque locale in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, has undergone a terrifying transformation in the last two to three years. The ISI, which runs an interrogation centre here is responsible for the change, which brought hundreds of potential terrorist recruits from various parts of the country to Dulai camps that exist blatantly under state protection. The Sunday Standard has accessed the details of the new dossier prepared by the Modi-Doval team to expose India’s diabolical neighbour, where Dulai terror camp figures on top of the list. As per the fresh evidence in the dossier, ISI operationalised two other terror camps in PoK at Maskar-e-Aqsa and Abdullah Bin Masood, both with close links with Dulai’s camp trainers. Founded by the most wanted terrorist Hafiz Saeed in 1990, LeT is banned by Pakistan, USA, UK and India. However, it parades under the name of Jamat-ud Dawa, a charity organisation, to disguise its nefarious activities. Despite pressure from the US which is a major funder of Pakistan, Dulai’s architects of death contimue their war against India with the ISI’s blessings.

LeT has also been able to keep three terror camps active in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK)— formerly known as the North West Frontier Province—to train its fidayeen units namely ‘Jaan-e-Fidai’ and ‘Ibn-e-Tayamiah’. The training camps in KPK are Umar Bin Khitab, Garhi Habibullah and Batrasi. The Pakistani army has a sizeable presence in Batrasi and Garhi Habibullah, which is an administrative subdivision of the Mansehra District. According to the Indian dossier Pakistan has activated at least 17 terror training camps there.

The files state that LeT terrorists have also found safe haven in Balakot in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, where sources said, recruits from Jaish-e-Mohammed are also being trained by retired Pakistan Army officers. These camps are being managed by Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry and Muhammad Hussein Gill, who were designated as global terrorists by the US treasury department. The LeT has another camp at Barali, a village and Union Council between Kotli and Gulpur in PoK. LeT terrorist, Naved, who was captured alive by villagers in Udhampur, Kashmir, had disclosed details about his experiences at the Manshera and Kulahri camps run by LeT, where he spent 21 days learning how to kill innocent people in late 2011. Naved had told interrogators that Maskar-e- Aqsa Camp, where he was trained, imparted two types of operations namely Daura-e-Khas and Daura-e-Lashkar . The former was conducted between August 2014 and December 2014 while the latter was administered between February 2015 and May 2015.

According to the Indian dossier, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), responsible for audacious ‘Fidayeen’ attack on Parliament in 2001 is operating a terror camp in Chellabandi in Muzaffarabad. JeM is aided by the ISI and said to have links with other terrorist groups such as Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The most worrying trend for the Indian security establishment is growing firepower of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), which is fuelling the insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir. HuM is operating its training camp from ‘Khalid Bin Walid’ in Muzaffarabad. With a cadre strength of at least 1,500 terror modules, it is active in Bandipora-Baramulla, Anantnag, Pulwama and Rajouri. Sources said they have identified the pugmarks of at least 26 terrorists, affiliated with the HuM.

“Some top terrorist commanders like Anam Ul Haq Malla and Aadil were trained in Muzaffarabad. Along with several modules, they are operating in various areas of Shopian including Molu, Maldara, Kapran and Chak chollan,” sources added.

KASHMIR’S DEMONS

The Indian security establishment, on the basis of intelligence inputs, is also tracking the footprints of HuM commander Burhan Din Wani, a resident of Tral in J&K.

Wani, who was trained in Garhi Habibullah training camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is learnt to be operating from HuM hideouts in Doodhkulian Forest, Lurgam and Khalil. Wani is part of six HuM modules based in Awantipora.

THE SEVEN DEADLY BINS OF BLOOD

The ISI is supporting seven terrorist sanctuaries and training facilities inside Muzaffarabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These camps are used to prepare fidayeen modules of LeT, Jaish and HuM to cross into India. As per the dossier, the list includes terror camps in Sensa, Kotil, Dungi and Gulpur. A senior official said terrorist attempts to launch strikes against India from these sanctuaries will occur repeatedly unless they are closed down.

“Pressure from the international community is one of the reasons for the spread of these secret terror camps in various far flung districts, so that Pakistan can deny their existence. At the same time they are strategically located to facilitate the transportation and subsequent infiltration of trained terrorists from launch pads secured by Pak rangers and army into India,” the source said.

The revelations from the meticulously created dossier has Nawaz Sharif on the backfoot. Wilfully blindfolded by the ISI, all the helpless Pak Prime Minister can do is toss the blame back at India. Unfortunately for him, the strategy isn’t working.