Militant camps across LoC are intact, says militants

Uri, Mar 27 (UNI) Militants are still being trained in the camps set up across the Line of Control (LoC), said the ultras who surrendered before army after their return from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) today.

The entire militant infrastructure in PoK was intact, where hundreds of young men from different countries, including Pakistan were being trained, said the eight militants immediately after their surrender before the army at a camp here.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said with this disclosure Pakistan's involvement in abetting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in terms of moral, financial and material support remains undiminished.

Militant camps were thriving in PoK and Pakistan contrary to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's claims, the spokesman said.

They said we were trained how to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), hurl hand-grenades and fire from close range on security forces.

The ISI was coordinating the training, they said.

When asked why they decided to return back, they said we were frustrated because of ill-treatment in the PoK camps.

The militants belonging to different outfits, including Tehrik-e-Jehad, Hizb-e-Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen and Kashmir Revolutionary Force, had crossed over to the PoK for receiving arms-training after they were misled that it was a jehad (holy war).

They said things have now changed as earlier youths from Kashmir were being welcomed in the PoK and Pakistan. ''We are being doubted and discriminated,'' they said, adding they were also not being given basic necessities.

The militants said a large number of Kashmiri militants, still in differrent Pakistani camps in PoK, want to return and lead an honourable life.

A number of Kashmiri youths in different camps have committed suicide, while others are doing petty jobs to earn a livelihood.

More than 50 militants, including those along with their families, surrendered before the army near the LoC in north Kashmir during the past two years.

Apart from arms and amunition, they handed over the Pakistan currency and other incriminating material to Army.

UNI