21 May 2002

MILITANTS TO HELP PAK ARMY IN WAR WITH INDIA?

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Pakistan may use the militants located in Jammu and Kashmir and other Indian border states to assist its army in case a war breaks out between India and Pakistan, according to a "secret" intelligence document accessible to only a few eyes at the top in the Vajpayee Government.

The document points out that "militants have been tasked to attack Army posts, convoys and Army communication lines." The Army has been, therefore, told to take necessary steps to prevent its troops getting sandwiched between the enemy in the front and the armed militants in the back.

According to the intelligence reports, the Lashkar-e-Toiba has asked its students in Muridke to shift to Gujarat, Sindh and Peshawar while other groups like JeM, Al Badr and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) have shifted their training camps from Pakistan to Muzaffarabad in the Pak-administered Kashmir so as to hoodwink the US that the Musharraf regime is no longer sheltering the militants. All the same these outfits continue to run their recruitment centres in Pakistan, the reports point out.

AFGHAN RETURNEES: Inputs gathered from across the border also showed that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI has gathered all militants who returned from Afghanistan in camps in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir at Kotli, Bagh, Abbotabad and Muzaffarabad and they are all ready to cross into Jammu and Kashmir with the melting of the snow.

Sources say ISI used Jait-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Jamait-e-Islami (Jel) to influence these militants to go to Kashmir so as "to channelise anger and bitterness of the returnees as otherwise they would have posed problems for Pakistan by staying there.""

Yet another document implicating ISI hand in Kashmir violence points out how it has encouraged People's League chairman Farooq Rehmani to form a new political front in the Kashmir valley, rope in Shabir Shah of J&K Democratic Freedom Party and Nayeem Khan of the National Front.

Rehmani's armed wing Al-Fateh has also been revived by recruiting local youth in Srinagar and Anantnag districts as he believes that the Kashmir issue can be resolved only through an armed movement. Under the new funding arrangement, the document says the ISI is now providing money directly to the active cadres and not through the leaders of the People's League in view of their misappropriation of funds in the past.

LIMITED WAR: The intelligence report also indicates that Pakistan is all prepared since December for a combat "possibly in response to the perception of a limited air strike by India in POK (Pakistani part of Kashmir)."

Pakistan is capable of undertaking an offensive between Poonch and Jammu, south of Pir Panjal, to thwart any hot pursuit of the militants within its occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The offensive will be possible in view of the mobilisation of 1 Corps in Chenab-Jhelum Corridor and the accretions of 11 Corps in the Pak-administered Kashmir.

The report says Pakistan has also mobilised since last December 11 and 12 Corps from its Afghan border to the Jhelum sector and Rahimyar Khan-Pano Aquil in the desert/semi-desert sectors respectively when India decided to move its Armed Forces on various borders after the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament House. Only one brigade each of these Corps have been left to guard the Aghan border.

Forward dumping of ammunition and stores by the Pakistan Army ha also taken place in the Chenab-Jhelum Corridor to ensure capability to any air attack, the report said.

US ROLE: Sources point out that the handover of the Jacobabad base to the US military by the Musharraf regime is a matter of concern for India. "The increasing US military presence in Pakistan and the presence of the US Navy in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean will have the effect of nullifying India's military option against Pakistan, if exercised," says another Intelligence report.

It also points out that "India is also a target of increased surveillance by US military and space assets in the current atmosphere of heightened tensions." The report even points out that the US media reports late last year indicated the possibility of the US assisting Pakistan in nuclear command while revealing that Pakistan had shifted its nuclear cores, together with their detonation assemblies to six new secret locations.

The US has in the past helped other countries -- UK and France -- in upgrading the safety mechanisms of their nuclear arsenal in violation of its own domestic laws prohibiting such assistance and as such the US may have also assisted Pakistan in this regard, the report said.

According to a Military Intelligence report, since the time India moved its forces in the forward areas, the Pakistan Army has also mobilised and all the holding formations on the Indo-Pak border have occupied their operational areas of responsibility.

Sources said India's primary concern is not only the cross-border terrorism being used by Pakistan as a cheaper option of war that continues against India for nearly two decades which includes days of Sikh terrorism but also the war preparations that Pakistan has made to compel India to let its forces stay put on the borders during the Summer and maybe even during the coming Monsoon.

PAK PREPARATIONS: Some of the war preparations of Pakistan that were documented for presentation to the Prime Minister and other decision makers in the government include:

-- Mine laying near Line of Control as also in some forward areas opposite in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan;

-- Artillery ammunition dumping in Pak 12 Infantry Division sector opposite Poonch-Uri in Jammu and Kashmir;

-- Formations of Pak 1 Corps (ARN) continuing to stay put in the Chenab-Jhelum Corridor (CJC) and 2 Corps (ARS) continuing to be in Multan;

-- 11 and 12 Corps, less a brigade each responsible for Pak-Afghanistan border at Peshawar and Quetta respectively, have been moved towards the Indo-Pak Border;

-- 11 Corps less 73 Infantry Brigade has moved to general area Jhelum-Jalalpur Jattan opposite Jammu and Kashmir;

-- 12 Corps, minus 61 Infantry Brigade, are now positioned in the desert area of Rahimyar Khan-Pano Aquil opposite the Jaisalmer sector;

-- Pak Air Force is on a high state of alert. Mobile observation units have been mounted at the operational readiness posts (ORPs) at all major air fields;

-- Satellite aviation bases in Murid, Chander, Risalwala, Multan, Sukkur and Sahara-e-Faisal have been activated and combat air patrols are being undertaken at least twice a day;

-- Pak Navy is also on full alert as seen from its surveillance helicopters in the air and intensified patrolling off the coasts at Ormara, Had Ribdani, Gwadar-Pasni belt and Sonmiani Angol;

-- Karachi port and surrounding facilities have been provided adequate security umbrella;

-- Reservists and ex-servicemen up to the age of 45 years have been recalled for military duty while all courses including Staff College training have been cancelled;

-- General Mohd Aziz Kan, Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, has been made overall incharge of the operations.

The Military Intelligence report says the way Pakistan has amassed its forces and ammunition, it can launch a really major offensive in the area between Jammu and Poonch but limited offensives in other sectors also cannot be ruled out. END