'Al Qaeda funds jihad in Kashmir'

NEW DELHI: Al Qaeda’s backing for jihadis in Jammu and Kashmir has been revealed in a back channel cable released by whistle-blower WikiLeaks website. According to the cable from a US diplomat, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden pledged his support to jihadis fighting in Jammu and Kashmir and said they will “not run short of funds”.

At a meeting with US diplomats, Indian security officials said that India was Al Qaeda’s prominent target and pointed out to the group’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri’s April 29, 2006, video message praising “popular jihadist movements against Indians in Kashmir”.

Al-Zawahiri had called India “the best candidate for carrying out the Zionist-Crusader scheme to humiliate, weaken, and dismember Pakistan”. The Guardian on Friday published latest round of nearly 250,000 diplomatic cables given to the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks by a US Army intelligence analyst.

In the meeting with US officials, Joint Secretary (Cabinet Secretariat) Sharad Kumar stated that Indian intelligence has transcripts of pre-9/11 meetings between Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar during which terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir was discussed. Mr Kumar said that Osama was “willing to divert $20 million” from Central Asian programming to support Kashmir-oriented terrorism, and that Osama was quoted as saying Kashmiri jihadis “would not run short of funds”.

Kumar, whom the cable identified as being associated with R&AW, added that when Osama sent his bodyguard contingent to help the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance, the temporary chief of his security force was an unnamed individual who went on to join Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The cable said that KC Singh, additional secretary (International Organisations) in the foreign ministry, asserted that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence retains connections to Al Qaeda and has been privy to Laden’s communications.