Impact on India continues...

This plan was executed through groups like Harkat-ul Ansar (HuA) and Harkat-ul Jihadi al Islami (HuJI), both organically linked to Harkat-ul Mujahideen (HuM), one of the major Pakistani groups involved in Afghan jihad. The group’s first operational base was in Khost province of Afghanistan where ISI used to send Pakistani and Kashmiri militant cadres for training and for fighting against the Soviet forces. The recruits were commanded by the regional commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder leader of the Haqqani Network, one of the most dangerous terrorist groups active in Afghanistan-Pakistan today. Janes Intelligence Review (October 1997) pointed out that “HuA owes its considerable arsenal in large measure to the generosity of the Pakistani Government or, more specifically, its intelligence service.” A CIA report in August 1996 said ISI paid “at least US$ 30,000—and  possibly as much as US$60,000—per month to HuA.”

Janes Intelligence Review subsequently reported that even after the Taliban had taken over Kabul, HuA’s training facilities in eastern Afghanistan continued to recruit and train cadres sent from Pakistan. These camps were run by Jalaluddin Haqqani. Both HuA and the Taliban, Janes noted, “play the same strategic role: extending Pakistani hegemony into neighboring states.” Unlike other Kashmiri groups, “the HuA has always advocated rule from Islamabad”—precisely what a Taliban victory would mean, in fact if not in name, in Afghanistan, Janes pointed out.

A CIA report on HuA, declassified in 2004, talked about the growing threat posed by HuA “an Islamic extremist organisation that Pakistan supports in its proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir.” The report pointed out that Westerners were increasingly becoming HuA’s targets “to promote its pan-Islamic

agenda.

To be continued...