Pakistan's ISI has entrusted the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the task of reviving militancy in Punjab, an Indian intelligence report says. According to the ISI plan, the Lashkar will impart arms training to pro-Khalistani outfits like the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) and the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF). The intelligence report says the Lashkar has opened at least eight camps in Pakistan to train the Khalistanis. These are at Kot Lakhpat, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Mianwali, Peshawar, Attock, Shahidan Da Banga and Gulbarg in Lahore. Intelligence reports say that the ISI plan to arm and train Khalsitanis was one reason why President Pervez Musharraf was reluctant to hand over to India the five Khalistani terrorists living in Pakistan. India had named them in its list of wanted terrorists and criminals.
Interrogation of Sikh militants arrested in India over the last year suggest that the ISI's plan was set in motion last year. The report says nearly 200 Sikh youths were recruited in the first half of 2001. |