NEW DELHI, 28 November 2002 — India’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday claimed that the Pakistani High Commission in neighboring Dhaka has become the "nerve center" of ISI activities in promoting terrorism in India.
He accused Pakistan of using Bangladesh and Nepal for launching activities against New Delhi and said "strong concern" had been expressed to Dhaka.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was using the two countries for deploying "fundamentalist organizations, local rebels and criminal gangs" against India, Minister of State for Home Vidyasagar Rao told the upper house of Parliament.
Yashwant informed the lower house that New Delhi had conveyed its "strong concern" to Bangladesh because terror groups opposed to Delhi had got sanctuary in that country. While the Pakistan Embassy in Dhaka had become the "nerve center" of anti-India activities, some Al-Qaeda elements and Indian insurgents have found sanctuary in Bangladesh, he said.
"Some Al-Qaeda elements have taken shelter in Bangladesh... The foreign media has reported several such instances, and our own sources have confirmed many of these reports," Yashwant said. He said while many Indian insurgent groups operating in the northeast had set up training camps in different parts of Bangladesh, a large number of madrasas had sprung up along the border between the two countries.
The Indian envoy in Dhaka had conveyed Delhi’s "strong concern over shelter being obtained on Bangladesh territory by people acting inimical to India’s interests," he added. "The Bangladesh foreign minister intimated that instructions have been issued not to allow presence of Indian insurgents or their free movement across the border," he said.
Yashwant said India had succeeded in convincing the world of Pakistan’s activities and said despite President Pervez Musharraf’s promises to stop terrorist activities against Delhi, "there is no evidence of any firm attempts being made to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan".
He accused Islamabad of establishing "an elaborate infrastructure for recruitment, indoctrination and training of terrorists on its territories and territories under its control". These included launching stations, communication centers and training camps.
Rao said in his statement: "Pakistan has strengthened ISI network to spread terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir to Northeast.
"Many of the militant camps and training centers which were closed or relocated to interior areas earlier have reopened and a number of launching bases have been reactivated," he said.
