 Former Pakistani Army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg yesterday confirmed that the country's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, ran a training camp for militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir. "I was the army chief in 1991 when Sheikh Rashid used to run the camp for Kashmiri militants, some 16 km from Islamabad," Beg said here.
| Kinda throws a bit of doubt of the ol' Sheikh's statement that it wasn't him, doesn't it? |
The controversy surrounding Sheikh Rashid, who plans to travel to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, on June 30, erupted following a statement by the Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik here last Monday. Yasin, who heads his own faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and currently is visiting Pakistan, said Sheikh Rashid used to run a training camp in the initial days of the Kashmir movement and about 3,500 boys were accommodated at his farm house for the purpose.
| Brief, sternly suppressed vision of jihadis sleeping 300 to a bed... Naked... |
Yasin said they came to Pakistan for military training in 1988 and Sheikh Rashid used to take them to the Northwestern Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan for various assignments. Sheikh Rashid's intended Kashmir visit may be jeopardized following Yasin's statement.
Sources in Delhi said yesterday the authorities had decided not to allow Sheikh Rashid to travel to Kashmir on the June 30 Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus. Though Sheikh Rashid had tried damage control by saying Tuesday "there were many Sheikhs in Rawalpindi", the Indian authorities aren't satisfied. The External Affairs Ministry has already expressed concern on the issue.
| Aslam Beg, another loose cannon, isn't going to help matters... |
Yasin, through his statements, has been attracting a lot of media attention ever since he landed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 2. Immediately after crossing the Line of Control (LoC), Malik had "thanked the people of Azad Kashmir" by calling every house in Pakistan-administered Kashmir a "base camp for the pro-independence JKLF". Known for bold and unreserved comments, Yasin is seen in Kashmir as the "pro-active separatist leader who is a hardliner among the moderates".
| You don't see statements making that kind of sense every day, do you? |
Meanwhile, the Dawn daily reported yesterday Yasin has been advised complete rest after he collapsed due to fatigue.
"Shut him up! Somebody shut him up!"
"Mahmoud! The needle!"
"What? Hey! Ow! That hurt!" [Groan! Thud!] |
The nine-member delegation of separatist leaders from Jammu and Kashmir on a two-week visit to Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan were attending a lunch hosted here Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations committee when Yasin collapsed. The doctor who attended Yasin blamed the illness on fatigue due to the hectic schedule of the Kashmiri leaders who arrived in Pakistan-administered Kashmir June 2.
| "Yasss... He's very fatigued. We're giving him the needle every two hours now. Just ignore anything else he says. He's delerious..." |
Mohammad Rafiq Dar, secretary general of the JKLF faction in Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan, said Yasin was likely to cancel yesterday's trip to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. |