India readies to strike

[Guest guest]

Title: India readies to strike

Author: Deepak Sharma/New Delhi

Publication: The Pioneer

May 18, 2002

 

It's all systems go as far as New Delhi is concerned. Having

collected all the

necessary evidence of the massing of infiltrators across the Line of

Control

(LoC) in Kashmir as well as their locations, the Indian Air Force is

busy giving

final touches to its strategy for conducting selective strikes at the

terror

camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

 

 

New Delhi has kept Washington informed of the presence of over 3000

terrorists

in the Northern Territories, near the Line of Control. While the US

is believed

to have admitted that it would be "legitimate" for India to take

action in these

circumstances, it has pleaded for more time to be given to Pakistan.

 

 

However, this time, the Government is in no mood to oblige. "We gave

you nearly

six months after the attack on our Parliament. What were you doing

all this

time? Nothing has changed on the ground," a senior Government

functionary is

understood to have conveyed to US officials in New Delhi.

 

 

The view in the top echelons of the Government is that while military

action is

undoubtedly "fraught with risks," inaction at this juncture will be

"disastrous". It is not just as question of the Government, "We have

to ask

ourselves what kind of a nation we are, if we fail to act even now,"

a top

Government official told The Pioneer on Saturday.

 

 

While the government gears up for a possible military option, South

block would

continue to take calibrated measures to to mount diplomatic pressure

on

Islamabad. By Sunday some more important decision could be taken

including

withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation(MFN) status and a

reconsideration on

Indus Water Treaty.

 

 

Top sources in the government revealed that Indian Intelligence

agencies have

identified 75 operational camps relocated in PoK during the past few

months.

These camps, evidently set up under the supervision of the Pakistan

army,

include well equipped mercenaries, most of whom fled from Afghanistan

after the

fall of Taliban militia. Many of these assembled mercenaries are

believed to be

Arabs linked to Al-Qaeda outfits who were till recently fighting

shoulder-to-shoulder with the Taliban.

 

 

During the high level briefing on Saturday by three services chiefs

to the Prime

Minister and key cabinet colleagues, the officers gave a detailed

presentation

on these camps and recently relocated settlements of the Jehadis in

PoK. Sources

said that Cabinet Committee on Security will again sit on Sunday to

discuss

strategy with three services chief.

 

 

During the past fortnight Intelligence agencies have given specific

inputs about

the recently relocated training camps and launching pads of the

terrorists set

up all along the border in Northern Areas and Pakistan Occupied

Kashmir. The

agencies have identified 75 such operational camps.

 

 

A secret report sent to the Prime Ministers Office reveal between

3000 to 4000

terrorists belonging to Taliban and Al Qaida have been sheltered in

PoK. The

report says that 2000 terrorists are settled in tents which have

sprung up on

the periphery of Muzaffarabad.

 

 

The report also mentions that the biggest settlement of terrorists is

located at

Al-badr Markaz, 20 km from Muzaffarabad.

 

 

According to the report a large number of these camps and settlements

are being

directly managed by the Pakistan army.

 

 

"Training camps and establishments of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-

Mohammed (under

their new nomenclatures), Al-badr and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen continue to

function

freely in an around Muzzafarabad," the report says.