ISI funded terrorists in Valley,US knew in 1997

A secret cable sent in July 1997 details the role of the Pakistani establishment in funding and running Kashmir terror groups that conducted a series of attacks in India. The cable discusses the role of the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) that it says was controlled by the ISI and formed by Sajjad Ahmed Kenu in 1995.

“Since its inception,the JKIF has been under considerable pressure from its Pakistan-based leadership to carry out bomb blasts outside J&K,particularly in Delhi,” the cable reads. It details a high density bomb attack in Srinagar in November 1995 and attacks in New Delhi that it says was carried out with the help of two Sikh terrorists.

The communication shows that US intelligence had concrete information that major attacks in India were being coordinated by the ISI and even names a Colonel of the Pakistani army involved in the operations. “The JKIF was controlled from Pakistan by Pakistan ISI and Tiger Memon (prime accused in the Bombay bomb blast cases of 1993). Their contact in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was Bilal Beg,” the cable reads.

While there is no indication in the cable that the US wished to act on the information that was made available,it shows there was enough actionable information. “Bilal Beg was running an indoctrination camp near Muzaffarabad,funded extensively by the ISI to carry out terrorist acts in India,one Colonel Farooq of Pakistan ISI tasked Bilal Beg and Tiger Memon to utilise Kathmandu-based activists Lateef and Javed Krawah to set off blasts in Delhi before the Lok Sabha elections,” the cable reads.

It also has information on a “two week specialised capsule course in explosives” that was conducted for “committed” JKIF cadres near the Afghan border in March-April 1996. It also has details about a foiled attempt to bomb Delhi on the eve of Republic day. “JKIF again planned a chain of explosions in Delhi before Republic Day 1997 at the behest of Pakistan ISI and Tiger Memon,” the cable reads.