http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/26/islamic-militants-train-near
-bin-ladens-compound/print/
Islamic militants train near bin Laden's compound
A forest where villagers dare not tread
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hafiz Saeed (center), the leader of banned Islamic group Jamaat-ud-Dawa,
sits among religious leaders during a rally against India and the United
States in Lahore, Pakistan. Accounts gathered by the Associated Press add to
suspicion that Pakistan is accepting U.S. aid to fight militants while
tolerating and in some cases encouraging extremism.
Hafiz Saeed <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hafiz-saeed/> (center),
the leader of banned Islamic group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, sits among religious
leaders
during a rally against India <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/india/>
and the United States in Lahore, Pakistan
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pakistan/> . Adds to suspicion that
Pakistan <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pakistan/> is
accepting U.S. aid to fight militants while tolerating and in some cases
encouraging extremism.
By Chris Brummitt
-
Associated Press
6:08 p.m., Thursday, May 26, 2011
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GULI BADRAL, Pakistan | In this Pakistani village surrounded by forests and
glacial streams just 35 miles from where Osama bin Laden was killed, people
become uneasy when asked what goes on up the mountain.
It's where villagers avoid cutting pine trees for firewood - and where they
know not to ask questions.
When pressed, they say it's a secret training complex for Islamic militants
and that the Pakistani army is aware of it. The army denies that it exists.
Accounts gathered by the Associated Press in the Ughi area of Mansehra
district add to suspicion that Pakistan is playing a "double game" - that
is, accepting U.S. aid to fight militants on the one hand but tolerating and
in some cases encouraging and harnessing the power of extremism on the
other.
Three men who identified themselves as mujahedeen - militants - told the AP
that the training complex is one of at least three in the region that among
them house hundreds of recruits.
The mission, the three say, is aimed at taking recruits to Kashmir to fight
Pakistan's archenemy, India.
But Kashmiri veterans have been known to join forces with al Qaeda and other
terrorist groups, including those fighting the U.S. and its allies in
Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The charges of Pakistani duplicity have gathered strength in the aftermath
of the May 2 U.S. raid against bin Laden, who was hiding in the army town of
Abbottabad and a short walk from a military academy.
Pakistani officials have denied any collusion, but the country is coming
under renewed pressure to abandon its links to all Islamist militant
networks.
In 2001, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the country was severing
its ties to jihadi groups amid intense U.S. pressure after the Sept. 11
attacks, but few are convinced that has happened.
The Mansehra area, a roughly four-hour drive north of the capital,
Islamabad, was known to have hosted state-backed militant groups in the
1990s. The region was considered ideal for such activities largely because
it is so close to Kashmir - about 25 miles from Pakistani-administered
Kashmir and about 45 miles from the boundary of the Indian-controlled part
of Kashmir. Both countries claim the territory in its entirety.
When contacted by the AP last week, the army denied that any training camps
or other facilities are hidden away in the Mansehra area. "The allegations
are baseless," said spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.
In Guli Badral, however, locals say extremists and men whom they presume to
be soldiers are familiar sights in the village square, where they shop for
meat, flour and beans before getting back into pickup trucks for the
two-hour trip along a rough track to the training camp.
The three militants who spoke to the AP about the camps did not give their
names and asked that the names of their organizations not be published. They
said the road leading to one of the larger camps, near the village of
Khatai, has an army checkpoint.
Militants and villagers alike gave the same advice to an AP team: Do not
attempt to get any closer. It's too dangerous.
At least one of the militants appeared motivated to speak out because of
anger at the army, which he said is not as supportive as it once was. Before
2001, Kashmiri-focused militant groups had offices across the country where
they could openly recruit and allegedly received considerable state funds.
The man said the army was "putting up hurdles" to the group's work and
briefly arrested some of its members. He gave no details.
It's widely believed that the army has been unwilling to go a step further
and dismantle militant training camps and crack down on the groups using
them.
The reason: Pakistan's obsession with neighboring India as an existential
threat. The two countries have fought three wars since 1947 - two over
Kashmir - and remain in a state of semi-hostility.
India has a larger army, so Pakistan views militants as a cheap and
motivated force when needed.
Pakistan's alleged harboring of Afghan Taliban factions also is related to
its hostility toward India. Pakistan fears being encircled by India and
wants an Afghan regime hostile to New Delhi when U.S. troops eventually
withdraw.
"Pakistan has never changed its policy of using jihad as an instrument of
its defense policy, even after 9/11," said Arif Jamal, author of "Shadow
War: The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir."
"They do not want evidence of that getting out, but everybody knows what
they are doing," Mr. Jamal said.
This policy comes with a price.
Many of Pakistan's former jihadi proxies already have turned against their
former patrons in disgust at their collaboration with Washington after 9/11.
Allied with al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, they have carried out scores
of suicide attacks within Pakistan.
One group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, is of growing concern to the West because it is
suspected of seeking international links and modeling itself on al Qaeda.
Foreigners have attended its camps. Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives were trained
in Pakistan before carrying out the 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian
city of Mumbai.
The three militants who spoke to the AP said all the bases in Mansehra were
training recruits for jihad in Kashmir, not Afghanistan.
An essential part of that process is religious indoctrination, especially a
willingness to kill - and die - for Islam, said Mr. Jamal, who visited
Mansehra camps about a decade ago.
The camp near the village of Khatai houses a mosque big enough for 2,500
worshippers as well as dormitories and classrooms, according to one
militant, who said his job is to deliver supplies such as boots and jackets
to the facility. He said firing exercises take place deeper inside the
forest, where the recruits stay in tents.
Recruits may enroll in a four-week course that covers basic military skills,
or three-month stints with extensive instruction in guerrilla warfare,
according to this militant. He said "chosen graduates" are sent to the
Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir for more explosives training.
Not every graduate goes on to fight, he said.
"We don't make just killing machines. Rather, we are trying to make them
God-fearing men so that they don't do anything wrong during jihad," said the
second militant.
The camp supplier said the training camps closed temporarily in 2005 after
an earthquake that killed 80,000 people brought international attention and
aid groups to the region.
A signboard hammered into the ground in Guli Badral indicates that the U.S.
government once funded a medical clinic here.
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