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ISI plan to sever N-E, Kashmir from India exposed

An elaborate plan drawn up by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence to not only sever Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India but also to create an independent Islamic state in the North-East has been revealed following the arrest in Assam on Saturday of two ISI operatives and two terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

It was as part of this plan that extremists have been setting off blasts in different parts of Assam since Friday using explosives supplied by the ISI, official sources said.

The idea is to disrupt the movement of the army and other security forces to the north-eastern region.

A similar plan was supposed to be set in action for Jammu & Kashmir to physically separate the state from the rest of India.

One of the arrested ISI operatives was a recruiting agent whose objective was to train Muslim youths from Assam in subversive activities to create an independent Islamic country comprising the state and some other parts of the North-East.

One of the Harkat terrorists confessed on interrogation that among the tasks assigned to them by the ISI was to blow up various portions of the Manali-Leh highway and cut off the army's supply line.

He revealed that the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen had put more than 400 youths, including some boys from Assam, at the disposal of the Pakistani Army to fight in Kargil.

The ISI agents and terrorists arrived in Dhaka in neighbouring Bangladesh from Karachi by a Pakistan International Airlines flight on different dates in the third week of July. There they met some other ISI personnel to arrange for the supply of explosives to the extremists in Assam, the sources said.

Subsequently, they sneaked into India somewhere near Karimganj. After reaching Guwahati, they got in touch with their 'contacts' in the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the United Liberation Front of Asom.

Part of the expected consignment of explosives was to be handed over to a local contact for use by ULFA and the local unit of the Harkat, while the rest was to have been sent to Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI

Blasts cut North-East's links with rest of India

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