The militia is planning to make inroads to India, warns Pakistan; Indian security experts say it's a gimmick by Islamabad to get international attention
The militia is planning to make inroads to India, warns Pakistan; Indian security experts say it's a gimmick by Islamabad to get international attention
Incursions across the Line of Control (LoC) has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan for long. But New Delhi was in for a surprise when the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, calling the Taliban an international threat, warned that the mercenary fighters may infiltrate into India.
However, Indian security experts rejected it as yet another ploy by Islamabad to put problems faced by it to international scrutiny. The Pakistani establishment has done it with the Kashmir issue time and again, they said.
The Pakistan Foreign Minister's assertion was based on inputs by intelligence agencies, which have been keeping a close watch over the Pakistan army's battle with the Taliban in the Malakand division, including the Swat valley.u00a0
The Indian intelligence agencies had alerted the government regarding the Taliban making inroads to India almost two months ago. And concerned ministries and departments had prepared their intelligence dossiers for inter-agency exchanges.
"Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which emerged in the western region of Pakistan gained notoriety after its increased activities in Swat and Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA). Later, almost all big terror groups operating from Pakistan aligned with it and they are expected to target India and Kashmir," said a senior official from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on condition of anonymity.
Though Taliban has never shown any interest in areas outside Afghanistan, especially those dominated by Pashtun and Pathans in Afghanistan and Pakistan but the merger with terror groups mayu00a0 brought a change in its attitude.
"We cannot deny that Taliban will not enter India after it merged interests with Lashkar and Hizbul. Taliban has always been close to Jaish-e-Mohammad," said the officer.u00a0Recently it was also observed that Taliban has taken over the emerald mines in Swat and Afghanistan, which has made it the richest terror group in Asia.
"Taliban has almost corporatized its finances after capturing the mines and the funds are pouring in from all sides. Naturally other Pak-based terror groups would align to it," said a Ministry of Defence official, who has served in Afghanistan.u00a0u00a0u00a0
Security experts also doubt Qureshi's statement as Pakistan is under intense US pressure to wipe out Taliban.
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"For some time America has been insisting Pakistan army to move its forces from eastern to western side to fight Taliban. But Pakistan is reluctant to do so as the shift will make the Kashmir-based terror groups loose a big support on the Line of Control (LoC)," said another Ministry of Defence (MoD) official, requesting anonymity.
"Pakistan has been trying to gain international attention and because of the increased pressure from America it is making all sort of statements to stabilize its position," the official added.u00a0
