National

Select Ministers briefed on anti-terror campaign

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI JUNE 3. The External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, today briefed a select group of his Cabinet colleagues about the foreign policy objectives in the war against terrorism.

The Ministers who attended the session were Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The group, considered eloquent and tele-savvy, is expected to take on the continuing battle against terrorism at the political level both within and outside the country.

Government sources said the Ministers were briefed on the terror machine, funded and supported by Pakistan and its army, which paid cash incentives to the "jehadis'', recruited and trained by it in camps on Pakistani soil. The initial pick-up point was often the "madrassas'' (Muslim seminaries) from where the young recruits were taken to military camps and imparted training in making bombs, weapons, explosives, killings and sabotage.

The next step was their placement at the site of deputation and facilitating their entry into the Indian side, which they had to tread cautiously as many areas in the border were mined. The initial cash incentive was Rs. 2 lakhs and another instalment of the same amount was paid after completion of the "mission''. Besides, there were other incentives for targeting Indian Army personnel of different ranks.

Sources said the post-January 12 speech of the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, generated some confusion in the ranks of terrorists and "jehadis'' who seemed subdued in the face of the crackdown on them by the Pakistani establishment.

But the rise in the level of terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir in April and May gave credence to the suspicion that the crackdown was only "cosmetic".

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