Gitmo files reveal al-Qaeda plan to bomb Indian airliner

The disclosures of the Guantanamo Bay detainees have shown that Washington was aware of the location, size and nature of anti-India terror camps in Pakistan and that the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate were running them.

Official US records, which were revealed by WikiLeaks and contain interrogation reports and analysis of 779 inmates of the prison, have brought out that American anti-terror experts were aware that terror operatives in India were being directed by Pakistani officials and at least one of the Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in custody at Guantanamo Bay is a direct ISI agent.

The files have also revealed the extent of al-Qaeda's interest in India, including a plan to bomb an Indian airliner, besides using India as a platform to send operatives to the western world, given the comparative low scrutiny for Indian travellers.

"Abdul Azia, an Algerian member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and an al-Qaeda courier picked up by the US in 2002 who said that his mission was to 'kill Indians in India', has been recorded as saying that the ISI 'allowed' fighters to fight inside India. Detainee also stated the intelligence personnel allowed the fighters to travel to India where they conducted bombings, kidnapping or killing Kashmiri people. The targets were chosen by the Pakistani Army. (Analyst note: The intelligence personnel are assessed to be members of the ISID.)"

In another intelligence note on a captured Afghan fighter Chaman Gul, an analyst notes information on Mast Gul, an ISI agent who fought in Kashmir. "A former Major in the Pakistani Army, Mast Gul is a notorious terrorist. He fought against the Indian government in Kashmir and planned terrorist attacks against a number of targets in Kabul, AF. Gul is also closely aligned with the HIG and the ISID," the note says.

* In the file on Badr Awad Bakri al-Sumayri, a self-confessed Lashkar-e-Toiba member who is a Saudi Arabian citizen, the terrorist is recorded as being recruited in his home country to travel to Pakistan for training in an ISI-run camp. "The LT training camp is assessed to be the LT al-Aqsa Training Camp located in Muzaffarabad. This camp trains fighters to fight in Kashmir against Indian military forces," the file states.

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