DECEMBER 28: Ever since surveillance along the Indo-Pak border was stepped up, Nepalese territory has been used for launching subversive operations with Kathmandu being the transit point.Early leads came with the April 1992 arrest of a group of ISI operatives, who revealed that Nepalese territory was indeed being used for entering India. One ``recruiting agent'' named at this stage was Mohammad Sharief, who was arrested in Delhi on June 18, 1993. He confirmed the use of the Nepal route.Corroboration followed in the mid-Nineties. Take the confessions of Samer Khan, Chief Commander of Al Inquilab, who admitted that the Pakistani mission in Kathmandu was ``actively'' funding anti-India operations and providing financial assistance and travel documents to Kashmiri militants. Samer Khan named a second secretary, Kalimullah, as the coordinator for such operations. Thereafter, Indian intelligence agencies got hints of a former Counselor Adnan Javed, first secretary Abdul Qadir and assistant Mohammad Khalilof the Pakistan embassy were among the fund collectors.Around the same time, there were blatant attempts to unite Nepal-based Muslim organizations under one banner. Therefore, financing of groups like the Nepal Muslim Ittehad Sangh, the Nepal Islamic Yuva Sangh, All Nepal Terai Muslim Sangh and the All India Nepal Islamic Front was stepped up. A written appeal by a high-ranking Pakistani official requesting Nepalese Muslims to donate generously for the ``Kashmir Solidarity Fund'' in March 1997 was a pointer in this direction. As was the intercepted advice of Adnan Javed, a former first secretary that only pagers should be used to communicate with contacts in Nepal.Of course, the role of Nepalese MP, Mirza Dilshad Beg, who had a known criminal record in India, in aiding terrorist groups was common knowledge. But in June 1998, before any concrete evidence against him could be collected, Beg was gunned down by suspected members of a rival group.Among the Kashmiri groups, the Jammu and Kashmir LiberationFront (JKLF) evidently made maximum use of Nepal as a sanctuary. A pointer was the December 15, 1996 arrest of Fayaz Ahmed Shah, a known associate of the JKLF Chief, Bilal Ahmed Beg. He was arrested from the Shakya Guest House in Kathmandu and spilled details about receiving 20kg of explosives and detonator pencils for carrying out explosions in Delhi. It was Fayaz Shah who had talked about the mysterious fax (released by the Nepal authorities) sent from the Pakistan Trading House in Islamabad with instructions on how explosive devices should be manufactured. Working on these leads, the Nepal police had later arrested four Kashmiri militants on December 11, 1996 with another booty of explosives and detonators.Subsequent leads came with the arrest of Amarjit Singh, former President of the Bittu faction of the International Students Youth Federation (ISYF) in New Delhi. Amarjit Singh was arrested on September 6, 1996 soon after he visited Kathmandu and said his immigration at the Karachi airport forKathmandu was done by ISI operatives. Similarly, the arrest of Manzoor Ahmed, a JKLF activist on December 16, 1996 along with 20kg of RDX unveiled a plot to carry out explosions in New Delhi on the eve of Republic Day.Yet another interrogation report relied upon by the Indian authorities is that of Tasin Butt, acting chief of the Ikhwanul Muslimeen, who said he had sent some recruits for training to Pakistan and then for infiltration into India via Nepal.The use of diplomatic missions in New Delhi and Kathmandu was earlier a subject of speculation, but now there appears to be proof staring the authorities in the face. Early indications came with the February 13, 1992 arrest of Mufti Mehrajuddin Farooqi, trustee of the Jhelum Valley Medical college and ex-additional Advocate General of J&K. He talked about the meetings which were held between him and senior functionaries of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhli and Kathmandu. According to him, he had a meeting with Kalimullah, a second secretary ofthe Pakistan High Commission and some ISI operatives during a 1991 visit to Nepal. He had been given Rs 6.5lakh to hire a ``safe house'' in Kathmandu. Later he was handed Rs 14lakh more through diplomatic channels in Delhi, meant for Kashmir militant groups.A similar nexus was alleged by Ghulam Nabi War of the Muslim Conference who was arrested on October 1, 1993. He said he had received a payment of Rs 9.8lakh from officials in the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to be given to Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, the Chairman of the Medical College. Then there was the confession of Mohammad Shafi Dhobi of the Hizbullah who was arrested on October 25, 1997 and spoke about a ``well-knit'' terrorist network in Kathmandu running with the help of Pakistani diplomats.It was Dhobi who had given his interrogators the nugget about Javed Krawa, KJLF kingpin and the prime accused for the May 21, 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blasts. Krawa had apparently told them that the ISI had backtracked on their promise of paying Rs20lakh to them for the blasts and that it was the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi which provided them fake travel documents to visit Pakistan. There is a paper trail (mostly comprising confession reports) which links the Nepal route to the smuggling of arms and explosives into India. The known instances are: Latif Ahmed Waza, a Kashmiri living in Kathmandu had confessed that it was an ISI operative who had given him a consignment of 18kg of RDX, four wireless sets and pencil detonators. He had handed over the consignment to Javed Ahmed Khan for a blast in New Delhi. Latif had also given information about one Tazamullah using Nepal as a hideout for training Nepal-based J&K militants. Corroboration of Latif's confessions came on June 15, 1996 with the recovery of explosives near the Dallu Housing Project in Kathmandu on June 15, 1996. Mohammad Azeemuddin, an Indian carpet dealer was detained by the Nepalese police and he later admitted he had held the explosives on behalf of Latif. Ina midnight operation on June 21, 1996 a Kashmiri terrorist by the name of Sarfaraz was arrested from Mayalu Hotel, Kathmandu. Two drums of chemicals and some RDX was recovered.*On January 9, 1997, the Baneshwar area in Kathmandu was the scene of action as the Nepal police chased a suspect on a scooter. The suspect escaped but threw away a bag filled with 13.5kg of RDX, some remote control devices and electronic detonators. Investigations revealed the abandoned explosives belonged to a Pakistani named Mohammad Shakeel Siddiqui. One of the targets for which the explosives were meant: the World Trade Centre, Mumbai.India activated diplomatic channels to discuss the evidence pointing to Nepalese territory for re-grouping insurgent groups, infiltration and smuggling of explosives. The issue was first discussed between Prime Ministers of the two countries on June 5, 1997. A month later, on July 17, 1997, the first meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Working Group (JWG) on Border Management was held at Kathmandufollowed by a second meeting on June 16, 1998.It was decided to share information on terrorists, immigration and civil aviation security, training of immigration officers and establishment of telecommunication links between the border districts. The decisions taken at the JWGs had been endorsed at a meeting of Home Secretaries of India and Nepal, held on June 18, 1998.
