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. Ironically, this regrouping comes amid the high-profile composite dialogue with India and when institutional arrangements for non-interference in Afghanistan have been put in place...Meanwhile, in Mansehra, the camp appears to be fully rehabilitated despite stray signs of disuse and decay accumulated over the past few years. A 15-minute drive up the jeep track from the village, a road barrier and a small shelter for those who man the checkpost have been renovated and freshly painted. Past the barrier, around the bend, the jeep track opens into two acres of levelled land that was carved out of the mountain and cleared of trees eight years ago. Shrubs that sprouted in recent years have now also been cleared. A volleyball net stands in one portion while a few four-wheel-drive pickups are parked.
"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. These camps are located in the areas of Pano Dheri, Jallo, Sufaida, Ogi, Khewari, Jabba, Batrasi, Naradoga, Akherilla, Hisari, Boi, Tanglaee and Achherian. As the camps reopen, managers claim trained militants as well as new aspirants are flocking to enlist for jihad. One recruiting office is located in a building behind a dusty market in a small town of the Lower Dir district. A sombre atmosphere marks an otherwise crowded office, where youthful aspirants make hushed enquiries about training updates from a bearded clerk.
Repeated bans on militant activity since 2002 have caused dozens of small jihadi outfits to close shop, leaving five major groups in the field, namely Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat ul Mujahideen, al-Badr Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. "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. |