GUWAHATI, Feb 28 - Despite their best efforts, Pakistan based terrorist groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have not been able to strike well inside India for some time because of the strong action taken by the Indian security forces. However, it is believed that the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is still providing shelter to a few top leaders of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), who fled to the neighbouring country after a major crackdown launched by the security forces.
Highly placed security sources told The Assam Tribune that terrorist groups like the JeM and LeT have strong bases in Pakistan and over the years, they have been trying to inflict damage to India at the behest of the agencies of the neighbouring country. But in recent times, the actions of the outfits were confined to Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Pakistan near the international border and they have not been able to penetrate deep inside India to indulge in any major acts of violence. However, the possibility of presence of modules of the outfits inside India cannot be ruled out.
Sources pointed out that the LeT had carried out several major operations in India including the attack on Parliament, an attack on an American centre in Kolkata, etc., but after the most dreaded of the attacks, that is the terror attack in Mumbai, the focus of the Indian agencies shifted to the LeT and the outfit is keeping a relatively low profile for some time and the JeM has been trying to fill up the void and launched several major attacks. Sources, however, said that despite the best efforts of the terrorist outfits, they have not been able to penetrate deep into Indian territory for some time, while, the Indian security agencies are also become more aware of their activities. Sources also said that apart from the training facility of the JeM, which was destroyed in a pre-dawn attack by the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Indian security agencies have fair idea of the locations of the strong bases of the JeM and LeT in Pakistan. �Such facilities are still in operation not only in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) but also deep inside Pakistan including a few in Punjab province,� sources pointed out.
Security sources revealed that infiltration attempts by the members of the JeMn and LeT goes up during the summer months, while, such attempts become more difficult because of heavy snowfall during winter. Moreover, very often, the Pakistan Army personnel give cover firing to distract the Indian forces whenever terrorists make attempts to cross over to India, which proved beyond doubts that Pakistan is hand in glove with the terrorist groups, sources pointed out.
Sources revealed that the Pakistani outfits, with the help of ISI, formed the Indian Mujahideen to give an �indigenous colour�. The members of the outfit, which managed to trigger off a number of major explosions in different parts of the country, mostly used explosives available in India as use of RDX could have linked the attacks to Pakistan. But after a major crackdown launched in India, most of the senior leaders of the outfit escaped to Pakistan and arrest of one of the senior leaders of the outfit Yasin Bhatkal gave vital information to the Indian security agencies about the involvement of the ISI in floating of the outfit. �After the arrest of Yasin, the Indian security agencies came to know that several senior leaders of Indian Mujahideen, who escaped to Pakistan including Iqbal Bhatkal and Riaz Bhatkal, were staying in shelters provided by the ISI in Pakistan,� sources added.
However, as per information available, there was a split in the ranks of the IM and some of the members went to Syria to join Islamic State and most of them lost their lives fighting the Government forces. However, a few senior members of the IM are still taking shelter in Pakistan.
Sources said that up to 2005, the LeT members also used to sneak into India through Bangladesh but of late, there have been no such input available and the security agencies are aware of the presence of outfits like the Jamaat Ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansar ul Bangladesh Team in Bangladesh.
