‘Suicide squads trained in Pak to hit Afghan targets’

Suicide squads are being trained in Pakistan by Al-Qaeda operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan and the bombers’ families are being p...

Suicide squads are being trained in Pakistan by Al-Qaeda operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan and the bombers’ families are being promised 50,000 dollars, say Afghan and Pakistani sources.

The Pakistani government denies the presence of camps here.‘‘Nobody will ever be able to either hide here or establish training camps in Pakistan,’’ said Interior ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmed.

But privately, some officials in Pakistan’s intelligence community and Interior Ministry say they believe there is such bomb training going on and it is being protected by Pakistani militants and Taliban sympathisers in the military.

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The nephew of Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s no. 3 man, says the training camps are in Bajour and Mansehra, towns in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province where support for the former Afghan regime runs strong.

The nephew asked that his name not be used, saying he feared retaliation from both the Taliban and Pakistanis.

Kabir’s nephew had a video taken at a graduation ceremony in the south-western city of Quetta where Kabir and several top Taliban leaders were present.

During two weeks of training, would-be bombers are told by Arab instructors that they are waging war on the Jews and ‘‘will be martyrs and go straight to heaven and their family will get $50,000 dollars.’’

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