Global Terror Infrastructure and Implications for India continues...

Lama’s disclosures are not really surprising. Evidence has been gathering for quite some time about the re-grouping of ISI-backed Muslim outfits, funded by West Asian entities, terrorist groups like LeT in Nepal, specially in the terai region which has been a traditional recruitment and training ground for terrorist groups. Muslims constitute 4.2 per cent of the Nepalese population and of which 96.7 per cent live in the terai region. Almost all the recent terrorist attacks in India—Ayodhya attack of July 2005; Delhi blast of October 2005; Varanasi attack of March 2006; and the Mumbai train serial blasts of July 2006—have Nepal links. LeT operatives, involved in the attacks, have either used Nepal as a transit point between Pakistan and Bangladesh or masterminded terrorist operations in India from Kathmandu and other towns.

Two days after the Mumbai blasts, two Pakistanis, involved in the planning of the attack carried out by LeT, Moiddin Siddiqui and Ghulam Hasan Cheema, were caught from a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In the huge arms cache caught in Maharashtra early 2006, two months before the Mumbai blast, one of the key operatives caught in the aftermath was Akif Biyabani, an associate of Zahibuddin Ansari alias Zaby, a LeT commander who has planned the operations in Nepal early 2005.

Although Nepal has been known to play host to ISI and its various front organizations, there has been a significant shift in the strategy after 9/11. Instead of operating own units, as it was doing in the past, the ISI has been keen on establishing networks with Maoists and Muslim NGOs to plan and execute anti-India operations. Last November, Nepal Maoist chief Prachanda revealed that the ISI had offered to help his group through “direct or indirect” means.

Some of the NGOs, which are known to be sheltering terrorist groups like LeT in Nepal, include Kashmir Jama Masjid Democratic Muslim Association, Nepal World Islamic Council and Nepal Islamic Yuva Sangh, Jamat-e-Ahle-Hadis, Millet-e-lslami and Jam Seraj-ul Alam.

to be continued...

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)