Taliban, Jaish-e-Muhammad step up efforts to recruit youths for militant operations: Wikileaks

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban and a faction of the Jaish-e-Muhammad ( JeM) have stepped up efforts to recruit youths from Punjab for militant operations in northwest Pakistan, a secret US cable released by WikiLeaks has said.

The cable sent in March 2009 by Bryan Hunt, then the top diplomat in the US Consulate in Lahore, states that "growing extremist activity" in Faisalabad coincided with a number of visits to the city by activists of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and a "splinter group from the southern Punjab-based Jaish-e-Muhammad".

The cable is largely based on information provided by a Faisalabad-based Deobandi scholar whose named was removed from the cable by WikiLeaks and media outlets for security concerns.

The scholar met Hunt to discuss his concerns regarding the increased extremist activity in Faisalabad, Punjab province's second-largest city.

The scholar told Hunt there had been a "dramatic increase in propaganda activities from Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan" in Faisalabad.

He said he believed this increase coincided with visits by Taliban and JeM activists.

The militant activists were "involved in recruiting for TTP militant operations in the (tribal areas) and NWFP through madrassas in southern Punjab and hoped to replicate that success in Faisalabad," the cable said.