JAMMU: About ten thousand youths from Azad Kashmir are in Azad Kashmir awaiting to cross the border after receiving training in different camps there.
Highly placed sources said that this number could be still higher as more youth were missing from different parts of the Kashmir valley and Jammu according to preliminary estimates.
The sources said that surveys conducted in three townships of the valley alone indicates that neatly 6,000 “boys” were missing from their homes for varying periods and they were believed to have crossed over before and during winter months.
The youth from rural areas and remote villages had also joined “Jehad” the sources said.
Snow and jungle shoes were in great demand in Kashmir between November and March, and they apparently were used by the youth for crossing over passes and gullies along North West Kashmir, according to the sources.
During the raids and searches conducted in parts of the Kashmir valley by security forces, hundreds of pairs of such shoes were also recovered from the hideouts of militants.
During the interrogation of several arrested militants, Indian agents claim it was said that several intelligence agencies of Pakistan including Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and field intelligence unit (FIU) in collaboration with Pakistani Rangers were helping Kashmiri youth to receive training in subversion and sabotage and also assisting them to cross over to India.
While nearly 200 men carrying arms and ammunition were rounded up and nearly 100 killed in several sectors of five km border belt where dusk to dawn curfew has since been imposed thousands were awaiting to return from different points.
The sources, however, did not rule out the possibility of several hundred having already sneaked into the valley and hiding in thick forests to strike.
They also did not rule out the collaboration of Afghan Mujahideen in the training of the youth in camps near Peshawar and Baluchistan.
Several leaders of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front gave lecturers to the boys for “liberating Kashmir” and carrying on the “Jehad” till the goal was achieved.
The training camps were also ‘occasionally visited by the leaders of JKLF and Kashmir Liberation Alliance (KLA) including the so called POK prime minister Sardar Sikander Hayat Khan.
The sources said that the cover of nomadic tribes like gujjars and bakerwals, who often went to borders and sometimes crossed in search of grazing pastures for the cattle, were being utilized by the Pakistani intelligence in assisting the youth to cross over to Indian side,
The sources said that the next two months of summer in J and K would be crucial as it was feared that with the melting of snow, these trained youth equipped with sophisticated weaponry would attempt to cross over.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 11, 1990
