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COVER STORY: TERRORIST
TRAINING CAMPS
Full-fledged Institution
Only the fittest
from each graduating group are given a chance at martyrdom across the
border in Kashmir. The local commander makes his choice, and the fortunate
few are despatched to safe houses along the Line of Control known as "launching
pads". At this point, the Pakistani Army plays a crucial role in
helping to arrange the infiltration of the militants across the Line of
Control. Militants officially deny Pakistani Army involvement, but those
who fought in Kashmir tell Time that the wait at the launching pad is
dictated by their leaders, who are in touch with the army. "Until
an unmarked vehicle turns up at your safe house," says a veteran
of Al-Badr, the first Pakistan-based militant organisation to get members
across the line, "you don't know when your number will come."
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LONG MARCH: Foreign
militants on an uphill walk in south Kashmir. The fittest volunteers
from the training camps cross over into India from forward posts
of the Pakistani Army.
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When it does, this is what happens: "The
vehicle, covered from all sides, will pick up two, three or four militants
according to the plan and dump them at one of the forward posts of the
Pakistani Army," the Al-Badr veteran says. "People in civvies
give us arms, ammunition, food and money [Indian currency]. We are asked
to check our weapons. After a day or two they give us the signal to go
ahead."
The next step is the most hazardous: from the
Pakistani Army post, the group embarks on a three-to-seven night journey
into Indian-controlled Kashmir, travelling by night, hiding during the
day. The group leader wears night-vision goggles. The rest follow blindly
across the mountains. There are numerous obstacles: Indian mines, tracer
flares, Indian border patrols anxious to shoot at them. "But whenever
such a situation arises," says a Lashkar militant, "the Pakistani
guns come to our rescue to provide cover."
Militants making the return trip go through
a reverse route, ending up at a Pakistani Army base. In the 1990s, the
Pakistani militants hired local guides-ethnic Kashmiris-to help them get
across the mountains and into India. "On a number of occasions,"
says Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, 42, the supreme commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba
militants, "they took the money and tipped off the Indians. So we
trained our own manpower." In other words, the Pakistani militants
don't always trust the Kashmiris on whose behalf they are waging this
war. The Pakistani militancy, which had its roots in the Afghan war, is
now an institution unto itself.
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