Terror training schools, teaching hundreds of Tnew and young recruits in suicide missions and use of sophisticated weapons like Ak-47, Mi-5 and Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), have been active in many parts of Pakistan, including Punjab, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Waziristan and Pak-occupied Kashmir. Different terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), often with the help of ex-Army soldiers, run these schools or camps. The syllabus, the training and indoctrination are far more sophisticated than the pre-9/11 training camps.
Reports of the presence of new terrorist training camps in Waziristan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) began to appear in the Pakistan media as far back as late 2006, after President Pervez Musharraf signed a peace deal with the Taliban sheltered in these areas. Herald, a widely read English monthly published by the Dawn group of publications, reported in June 2006 about the fresh recruitment drive launched by the terrorist groups and the sprouting of training camps. Dozens of aspiring jihadis recruited from the Frontier and FATA towns were sent each month to training camps in Wana in South Waziristan.
The terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and killed over 180 people were trained in one or two of these schools where several hundred others, including many from western nations, have been undergoing training for more than two years.
This paper is based entirely on open source information, largely culled from the Pakistani media sources over the past two years. It reveals how Pakistan’s duplicitous policy on terrorism threatens, and will continue to threaten, not only India but also the western world in the years to come.
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