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http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=74232
KARACHI, JULY 10: An hour’s drive north-west of Mansehra, opposite a beautiful village nestled on the slopes of a ridge, a jeep track branches off from the road and snakes up a hill that is home to the oldest militant training camp in the region.
‘‘Until 2001, thousands of fighters trained here for operations in Kashmir and Afghanistan,’’ says our guide, requesting that his name and that of his organisation be withheld After the September 11, 2001, attacks, though, the militant activities dwindled. Last year, the camp was abandoned following an unequivocal warning from the government. ‘‘But now we can start again,’’ he says.
According to a top manager of the training camp in Mansehra, all the major militant organisations, including Hizbul Mujahideen, al-Badr Mujahideen, Harkat ul Mujahideen and others, began regrouping in April this year by renovating training facilities that were deserted last year.
.... But Islamabad has recently been under fire from Kabul over its alleged support for the Taliban insurgency that has claimed a record number of civilian, Afghan and American lives this year...
‘‘Our transport fleet is back, electricity has been restored and the communications system is in place,’’ says the guide. The main building — a concrete and timber structure which houses a prayer hall, four residential halls, a library and office space — is also back in shape. Militants on duty carry automatic weapons and wear shalwar-kameezes printed with a camouflage design. Those who are off duty rest in the four halls, each equipped with 15 to 20 sleeping bags laid out on thin mattresses that cover the floor. An intercom system in the library connects various parts of the vast training camp.
Enquiries reveal that at least 13 major camps in the Mansehra region were revived during the first week of May.
‘‘Following a ban on the public collection of donations and increased difficulties in obtaining mosque funds from the Middle East, we managed with whatever little official funding was still coming ,’’ explains one of the top leaders of a militant outfit.Militant operations did suffer considerably since a bulk of their financial needs would earlier be met by private donors and organisations in Pakistan and abroad.
But now it seems as if the government crackdown is history. As one militant leader puts it, the organisations are now under a ‘‘regime of controlled freedom’’
`Report baseless’
Federal Minister for Interior Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao dismissed the report on the training camp. ‘‘I have no information on that. The claim is totally baseless. We have no such information stating that training camps have restarted. Let one thing be clear: we will never allow militancy and terrorism to flourish on our soil,’’ he said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=74232
KARACHI, JULY 10: An hour’s drive north-west of Mansehra, opposite a beautiful village nestled on the slopes of a ridge, a jeep track branches off from the road and snakes up a hill that is home to the oldest militant training camp in the region.
‘‘Until 2001, thousands of fighters trained here for operations in Kashmir and Afghanistan,’’ says our guide, requesting that his name and that of his organisation be withheld After the September 11, 2001, attacks, though, the militant activities dwindled. Last year, the camp was abandoned following an unequivocal warning from the government. ‘‘But now we can start again,’’ he says.
According to a top manager of the training camp in Mansehra, all the major militant organisations, including Hizbul Mujahideen, al-Badr Mujahideen, Harkat ul Mujahideen and others, began regrouping in April this year by renovating training facilities that were deserted last year.
.... But Islamabad has recently been under fire from Kabul over its alleged support for the Taliban insurgency that has claimed a record number of civilian, Afghan and American lives this year...
‘‘Our transport fleet is back, electricity has been restored and the communications system is in place,’’ says the guide. The main building — a concrete and timber structure which houses a prayer hall, four residential halls, a library and office space — is also back in shape. Militants on duty carry automatic weapons and wear shalwar-kameezes printed with a camouflage design. Those who are off duty rest in the four halls, each equipped with 15 to 20 sleeping bags laid out on thin mattresses that cover the floor. An intercom system in the library connects various parts of the vast training camp.
Enquiries reveal that at least 13 major camps in the Mansehra region were revived during the first week of May.
‘‘Following a ban on the public collection of donations and increased difficulties in obtaining mosque funds from the Middle East, we managed with whatever little official funding was still coming ,’’ explains one of the top leaders of a militant outfit.Militant operations did suffer considerably since a bulk of their financial needs would earlier be met by private donors and organisations in Pakistan and abroad.
But now it seems as if the government crackdown is history. As one militant leader puts it, the organisations are now under a ‘‘regime of controlled freedom’’
`Report baseless’
Federal Minister for Interior Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao dismissed the report on the training camp. ‘‘I have no information on that. The claim is totally baseless. We have no such information stating that training camps have restarted. Let one thing be clear: we will never allow militancy and terrorism to flourish on our soil,’’ he said.
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