Pakistan’s ISI is actively trying to stop Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) cadres active in Kashmir from aligning with the Talibani outfits. Pakistani-American LeT terrorist David Headley, who has taken the lid off the nexus between ISI and LeT in planning and executing terror strikes in the country, told Indian interrogators that the ISI’s Kashmir strategy is to fight against the “occupational forces in Kashmir” since “the ratio of deployment of force in Kashmir vis a vis the general population is one of the highest”.
“I understand, the ISI was under tremendous pressure to stop any integration of Kashmir based jihadi organisations with the Taliban based outfits. It is always in the interest of ISI to keep these two sets of outfits poles apart,” Headley said. He said this was ‘’ISI’s official line’’ which was explained to him by LeT operational commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi whom he met in Muzzafarabad in Pakistan.
Headley, who spoke extensively on the Kashmir situation during interrogation by NIA officials, said that the ISI fears that rebellion in the jihadi organisations active in Kashmir wanting to go to Afghanistan could impact its strategic war in Kashmir. He explained that ‘’over the years, LeT has been able to get a name for jihad in Kashmir, which may not be easy to replicate in Afghanistan.”
According to Headley, the heavy deployment of security forces in Kashmir has given ‘’legitimacy’’ to the LeT’s activities in the Valley. He said Kashmir’s proximity to the LeT camps also makes it imperative for the terror outfit to ‘’liberate’’ the state from ‘’clutches of the occupational force.”
Headley said that several cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Pune were under the scanner of LeT prior to the 26/11 attack. Recalling preparations for his first visit to India, Headley said: “I went to the Indian Consulate in Chicago on June 29, 2006, to obtain the visa. I provided false information on father’s name and some other particulars. When I applied for the Indian visa, my passport had already the visa stamp of Pakistan on it. Also, my Pakistan visits in February and June were recorded in the passport,” he revealed.