Army not surprised by presence of Kashmiri youth in Taliban ranks

Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor on Thursday said the Army was not surprised at suggestions that some Kashmiri youth have joined ranks of international terrorist organisations like the Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

''Radicals do not worry about nationalities...the possibility could not be ruled out,'' Kapoor said.

The Army Chief claimed that when insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir was at its peak, foreign elements had joined hands with local militants.

Kapoor was interacting with media and defence experts after delivering a lecture on 'Changing Global Security Environment with specific reference to our region and its impact on the Indian Army'.

In a startling revelation, an Army intelligence report had recently claimed that Jammu and Kashmir was facing a clear threat from groups of Kashmiri youths, who have been trained by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to carry out terror activities on Indian soil.

The report suggested that Kashmiri Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists were being pushed into the valley by the Inter Services Intelligence, from posts along the Line of Control including Gulpur, Jarikhas in PoK.

The report claimed that the cadres were first trained in the camps of the ISI, run by the Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Muzaffarabad, Kotli in PoK and subsequently sent to other parts.