Osama's boys play in Kashmir

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: Kashmir has become a major regrouping base for al-Qaeda operatives even as thousands of other Islamic militants are assembled across the LoC on the Pakistani side waiting to infiltrate into the Indian side, intelligence officials said.<br /><br />According to officials, Kashmir is important for the al-Qaeda as it hopes to improve its strategic position vis a vis the United States.<br /><br />"Since US troops started smoking out al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, Kashmir has become invaluable as a training ground for the terrorist group. It now extensively conducts both military and terrorist training, including real-combat encounters with Indian security personnel and subversive activities," the officials said.<br /><br />"Al-Qaeda has been active in leading the Islamic militancy in Kashmir since the group commands a great deal of authority in the Kashmiri and Pakistani radical Islamic movements and it has the capability to turn the events in troubled Valley in the direction it needs," officials said.<br /><br />Indian army chief General Nirmal Chandra Vij on Saturday had also said operatives of the al-Qaeda terror network were active in Kashmir.<br /><br />It is not the first time Indian officials have made the claim. Last year Defence Minister George Fernandes also said al-Qaeda was operating in Indian Kashmir.<br /><br />According to sources though there is only a small number of full-time al-Qaeda members - 20 and 30 full-time people - and no units of their own, their strength is in their close links with the local Kashmiri militant groups. Some of the operatives are senior leaders and the rest are mid-level field members.<br /><br />While al-Qaeda does not exclusively own a single training camp in Kashmir, its part-time members run the camps for local militant groups and closely cooperate with Pakistan-based terror outfits like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.<br /><br />Highly skilled and extensively trained, they lead incursions against Indians and continue running training programs for new recruits, officials said.<br /><br />Al-Qaeda established a presence in Kashmir in its early years. The region always has served as al-Qaeda''s recruitment base, specialised training ground and safe haven. <br /><br />According to senior army officials 70 to 80 per cent of militants in Kashmir come from across the border and are foreigners. There are 85 rebel training camps in Pakistani territory, many of which were merged with training centres for the Pakistani army.<br /><br />In September there were 28 attempts by Pakistan to push in rebels into India with Indian security forces killing 78 of the rebels officials said.<br /><br />In October, Pakistan had made six such attempts and Indian troops had killed 65 rebels up until Saturday.<br /> <br /><a href="http://www.theindiantimes.app/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=231099">Cash strapped al-Qaeda turns to Kashmiris</a><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> >></span></div> </div>