http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/05/stories/2011020564882000.htm
Hasan Suroor
Al-Qaeda use these camps as recruitment centres, U.K. official tells U.S. diplomats
"Stability in Kashmir crucial for U.K. domestic security reasons"
"There was growing trend of U.K.-based parents who send their 'problem children' to madrasas in Kashmir"
LONDON: Terror training camps, though not directly run by the Pakistan government, continue to operate along India-Pakistan border creating potential for conflict with India and instability in the region, according to secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
"Terrorist organisations, like Al-Qaeda, have begun using these camps as recruitment centres. After additional training...recruitees are then poised to commit terrorist activities,'' a senior British Foreign Office official Laura Hickey is reported telling American diplomats.
Expressing Britain's concern over what is described as the "Kashmir escalation effect,'' Ms. Hickey reiterates the British view that a resolution of the Kashmir dispute would take away one of the main planks of extremist groups.
New Delhi is known to frown upon remarks by British ministers and diplomats over Kashmir calling them an attempt to interfere in India's internal affairs.
British concern
According to a cable dated July 18, 2008, published by The Daily Telegraph, Ms. Hickey told Americans that "stabilising Kashmir is also important for U.K. domestic security reasons." She voices British fears that continued instability in the region helps extremists to recruit vulnerable British nationals of Pakistani origin for conducting "terrorist activities in the U.K."
"With the continued presence of militant training camps in Kashmir and over half a million U.K. passport-holders with ties in the region, HMG (Her Majesty's Government) is concerned that U.K. nationals will be recruited to conduct terrorist activities in the U.K.,'' the cable says.
At risk of radicalisation
It quotes Ms. Hickey, who headed Foreign Office's Pakistani team at the time, as saying that there was a "growing trend of U.K.-based parents who send their 'problem children' to madrasas in Kashmir, and these students are at high risk of radicalisation."
'Unique threat'
According to another set of WikiLeaks files, splashed on Telegraph's front page, a senior MI6 official told visiting American congressmen in April 2008 that Britain faced a "unique" threat from a generation of home-grown terrorists such as those involved in the July 7, 2005 London bombings.
'Non-lethal training'
The "internal threat," he reportedly said, was growing more dangerous because some extremists were conducting "non-lethal training without ever leaving the country."
"Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG intelligence resources , eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard-pressed to find them on any radar screen," one document said.
Hasan Suroor
Al-Qaeda use these camps as recruitment centres, U.K. official tells U.S. diplomats
"Stability in Kashmir crucial for U.K. domestic security reasons"
"There was growing trend of U.K.-based parents who send their 'problem children' to madrasas in Kashmir"
LONDON: Terror training camps, though not directly run by the Pakistan government, continue to operate along India-Pakistan border creating potential for conflict with India and instability in the region, according to secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
"Terrorist organisations, like Al-Qaeda, have begun using these camps as recruitment centres. After additional training...recruitees are then poised to commit terrorist activities,'' a senior British Foreign Office official Laura Hickey is reported telling American diplomats.
Expressing Britain's concern over what is described as the "Kashmir escalation effect,'' Ms. Hickey reiterates the British view that a resolution of the Kashmir dispute would take away one of the main planks of extremist groups.
New Delhi is known to frown upon remarks by British ministers and diplomats over Kashmir calling them an attempt to interfere in India's internal affairs.
British concern
According to a cable dated July 18, 2008, published by The Daily Telegraph, Ms. Hickey told Americans that "stabilising Kashmir is also important for U.K. domestic security reasons." She voices British fears that continued instability in the region helps extremists to recruit vulnerable British nationals of Pakistani origin for conducting "terrorist activities in the U.K."
"With the continued presence of militant training camps in Kashmir and over half a million U.K. passport-holders with ties in the region, HMG (Her Majesty's Government) is concerned that U.K. nationals will be recruited to conduct terrorist activities in the U.K.,'' the cable says.
At risk of radicalisation
It quotes Ms. Hickey, who headed Foreign Office's Pakistani team at the time, as saying that there was a "growing trend of U.K.-based parents who send their 'problem children' to madrasas in Kashmir, and these students are at high risk of radicalisation."
'Unique threat'
According to another set of WikiLeaks files, splashed on Telegraph's front page, a senior MI6 official told visiting American congressmen in April 2008 that Britain faced a "unique" threat from a generation of home-grown terrorists such as those involved in the July 7, 2005 London bombings.
'Non-lethal training'
The "internal threat," he reportedly said, was growing more dangerous because some extremists were conducting "non-lethal training without ever leaving the country."
"Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG intelligence resources , eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard-pressed to find them on any radar screen," one document said.
