As LAC hots up, ISI Chief secretly visits LOC, meets top terror commanders

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) Taking advantage of the India-China border standoff on Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan is pushing militant cadres along the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu & Kashmir, in a bid to infiltrate hundreds of trained terrorists into Indian territory.

A week ago, ISI chief, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, and senior officials of Pakistan Army held a meeting at a guest house in Lower Gojra area of Muzaffarabad (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) with terror kingpins including Mohammed Tahir Anwar, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed boss Maulana Masood Azhar, reveals a report of Indian intelligence agencies.

As per the intelligence report, Lt Gen Hameed, perceived close to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, held a long meeting with Chief of Army Staff, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, prior to his secret visit to border areas of PoK.

"On 6th of May last month, another important meeting between ISI chief Faiz Hameed and PM Imran Khan took place in which Dr Moeed Yusuf, National Security Advisor and Assistant to PM was also present. Several important strategic decisions were taken in this meeting," says the report.

However, contrary to the agenda of discussion, PM Imran Khan, after conclusion of the meeting, publicly denied reports of "infiltration" on LOC in a surprise tweet.

According to a senior official in the Intelligence Bureau, Lt Gen Hameed's secret visit to PoK was aimed at boosting the morale of training commanders of different terrorist organisations, patronised by the Pakistan establishment to continue executing violent attacks inside Indian territory.

"This is not for the first time that the ISI chief and his team of key officials have presided over secret meetings with terror kingpins in Muzaffarabad. For years, ISI's primary focus has been to foment subversive activities, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir," the official told IANS.

The intelligence report says that the Covert Action Division of the ISI and Pakistan Army has provided logistics to several hundred armed terrorists, who have presently gathered in terror camps and near 15 launching pads along the Pakistan side of the LOC. The cadres including fidayeen groups of Pakistan-based terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba are equipped with grenade launchers, sniper rifles and other sophisticated weapons like M16A2 and AK 56 rifles.

Earlier, top Indian army commander Lt Gen B.S. Raju has said that terrorists camps and launch pads in PoK are full with Pakistani terrorists who seem desperate to infiltrate across the border into India.

Lt Gen Raju had told media that Pakistan army was desperately abetting infiltrators as Indian forces have eliminated a number of foreign militants operating on the Indian soil. He felt that during summers Pakistan would try to push more and more terrorists inside Jammu and Kashmir but Indian forces are ready to crush such attempts.