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Government sources have said there is evidence to show Pakistan has been sponsoring terrorism globally, with senior leaders even admitting to involvement in past attacks, like the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai.
New Delhi:
Pakistan has a record of sponsoring and sheltering terrorists and is ‘one of the most dangerous forces in the world’, top government sources told NDTV Wednesday, a week after 26 people were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Sources pointed specifically to a 2011 US military op in which Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was tracked to a compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.
Government sources red-flagged statements by senior Pak politicians, including former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and General Pervez Musharraf, in which they seemed to confess their government played a role in cross-border terror incidents like the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. There was also reference to a Pakistan minister saying his nation had done “dirty work” for the US, when asked about terror funding.
Sources also pointed to a global network of Pakistan government-sponsored terror strikes, including attacks on the Indian and American embassies in Kabul in 2008 and 2011, another on a concert hall in Moscow in 2024, and bombings across London in 2005. In these, and other cases, sources said, inquiries revealed the terrorists may have had logistical or ideological support from Pak networks.
In detailed inputs, sources also said the government is in no mood – after the terror attack in Pahalgam – to brook further denials by Pakistan about its non-involvement in a global terror network.
Behind these statements, sources insisted, was a ‘stark reality’, that Islamabad and the Pak Army had ‘turned soldiers into jihadist leaders fuelling decades of terror across South Asia’.
Sources claimed Pakistan funds multiple training camps across its territory and for multiple terror outfits, including the Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was responsible for the attack in J&K’s Pulwama in February 2019, in which 40 soldiers were killed.
40 CRPF personnel were killed in the February 2019 Pulwama terror attack.
These training camps, sources said, serve as ‘hubs for radicalisation, weapons training, and suicide mission preparation’, and are run by former Pakistani soldiers.
Finally, to round of an extensive indictment of Pakistan’s role in training and sponsoring terrorists and terror strikes worldwide, sources referred to a US State Department report that said Pak ‘continues to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups’.
READ | PM’s ‘Free Hand’ To Forces To Respond To J&K Attack: Sources
These inputs come a day after a high-level meet Tuesday night chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at which, sources said, the PM gave the armed forces operational freedom to respond.
A military response by India is also, reportedly, on Pak leaders’ minds; at a 2am press conference Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed “credible evidence” to that effect.
A map showing Pakistan-run terror training camps. Photo Credit: satp.org
The global community has rallied behind India and condemned the attacks, but the United Nations has called for caution from both sides. UN chief Antonio Guterres has reminded New Delhi and Islamabad the South Asian region cannot afford all-out war between them.
Pakistan, meanwhile, has demanded an international inquiry into Pahalgam.
Pak Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the New York Times his country is “ready to cooperate” with “any investigation which is conducted by international inspectors”.
The April 22 attack – in which civilians, off-duty military personnel, and a Nepali citizen were gunned down – has been claimed by The Resistance Front, a proxy of the Lashkar.
NDTV EXCLUSIVE | Pahalgam Attack Explained By Kashmir Defence Expert
Shortly afterwards security agencies said they had evidence of Pak’s involvement; this was later shared with senior diplomats from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and even China.
After the Pulwama attack the Modi government ordered a swift military response; within a week the Air Force conducted precision strikes on Jaish training camps in Balakot in Pakistan.
The government has already rolled out a series of non-military responses and restrictions, including revoking visas for Pakistanis and suspending the critical Indus Waters Treaty.
The suspension of the IWT, signed in 1960 and which guarantees nearly 85 per cent of Pak’s riverine water supply, was met with ‘an act of war’ rant. Pak has since also revoked visas for Indians and held other bilateral deals, like the 1972 Simla Agreement, which settled the Line of Control, to be suspended.
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