Osama promised to "divert" USD 20m to Kashmiri Jihadists

London, Dec 17 (PTI) Al Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden had
promised jihadis fighting in Kashmir that they will not "run
short of funds" and was willing to "divert" USD 20 million to
support Kashmir-oriented militancy, Indian officials were
quoted as telling US diplomats by WikiLeaks.
In a cable dated May 24, 2006 containing the details of a
Joint Working Group (CTJWG) meeting in Washington published by
WikiLeaks, Ministry Of External Affairs additional Secretary
(International Organisations) K C Singh was quoted as saying
that India is now more prominent on al-Qaeda's radar.
He pointed out to Osama's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri's April
29 video message praising "popular jihadist movements against
Indians in Kashmir" and calling India "the best candidate for
carrying out the Zionist-Crusader scheme to humiliate, weaken,
and dismember Pakistan."
He said that al-Zawahiri's recent reference to the
US-India civil nuclear agreement demonstrated that Delhi's
growing cooperation with Washington was drawing al-Qaeda's
attention, the US cables published by the Guardian said.
Singh asserted that Pakistan's ISI retains connections to
al-Qaeda and has been privy to Osama bin Laden's
communications.
To a query by a senior American diplomat, Joint Secretary
(Cabinet Secretariat) Sharad Kumar stated that Indian
intelligence has transcripts of pre-9/11 meetings between
Laden and Mullah Omar during which terrorism in Jammu and
Kashmir was discussed.
He continued that Laden had been "willing to divert USD 20
million" from Central Asian programming to support
Kashmir-oriented terrorism.
Kumar was also quoted as saying that Laden promised that
the Kashmiri jihadis "would not run short of funds."
Kumar added that when Laden 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.
Singh ascribed al-Qaeda's increasing interest in India to
the July 18 Indo-US civil nuclear agreement.
"ISI seeks to heat things up" to interfere with growing
US-India convergence, he claimed.
Kumar observed that, "al-Qaeda franchises," if not
al-Qaeda proper, are and have been very active in India.
He defined "al-Qaeda franchises" as groups that espouse
the same extremist ideology and share some logistical and
funding infrastructure even while remaining discrete
organisations, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Not all these groups or their attacks are linked, he
continued; each must be investigated individually to locate
their intersections. PTI NSA
PBL