June 14, 2005 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed is considered to be among Musharraf’s closest hands. As information minister, he is the public face of the Pakistani cabinet, as well as the launcher of the president’s political weather-balloons. He also ran camps to train terrorists.
When the armed struggle in held Kashmir was at its zenith, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed set up a camp where around 3,500 Jihadis were trained in guerrilla warfare, revealed Yasin Malik, the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman, at an exhibition of 1.5 million signatures by Kashmiris demanding their involvement in the dialogue process.
“Sheikh Rashid has played a great role for Kashmir’s liberation. He used to support the frontline Jihadis, but very few people know about his contributions,†the JKLF chief informed the audience. [DT]The Pakistani government clearly got more than what it bargained for when it allowed Yasin Malik to visit. First, he openly spoke of Pakistan’s role in fomenting cross-border terrorism putting Khurshed Kasuri, Pakistan’s foreign minister, in a spot. He has now revealed that contrary to what Musharraf likes to portray, jihadis and their supporters are not just restricted to the MMA, the religious opposition alliance. One of them is a cabinet minister. And the Sheikh Rashid who will take the Kashmir bus into Srinagar is not the cabinet minister or jihadi camp operator, but just an ordinary Kashmiri.
Update: India has officially expressed concern that ‘it is particularly serious that people directly involved in such activities continue to occupy high positions in Pakistan’
Related Link: (via Winds of Change)
Pakistani government officials have denied reports in U.S. news media that there are terrorist training camps within their nation`s borders.
“There are no training camps in Pakistan,” senior Foreign Ministry official Naeem Khan told reporters in Islamabad, Zee news reported Thursday.
“We are the front-line state in the fight against terrorism. How could we allow such camps in our country?” Khan said. [Monsters and Critics]
Yes, how indeed?
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