Pak has 43 terrorist camps, including 22 in occupied Kashmir: Indian Army chief

New Delhi, Dec 11(ANI): There are 43 terrorist camps in Pakistan, 22 of which are located in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the then Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, told US President Barack Obama's the then National Security Advisor (NSA), James Jones in 2009, a diplomatic cable unveiled by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks has revealed.

According to the leaked cable, during a meeting between senior US and Indian officials on June 26, 2009, General Kapoor told Jones that the "Pakistani military's statements regarding the Indian threat on its eastern border are wholly without merit. Even after the 11/26 terrorist strikes on Mumbai, he emphasized, India did not make any move of a threatening nature toward Pakistan."

"Kapoor alleged that there are 43 terrorist camps in Pakistan, 22 of which are located in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Although the Pakistanis raided some camps in the wake of 11/26, Kapoor averred, some camps have reinitiated operations," said the document, which was classified as 'secret'.

It said that the Indian army chief "further asserted infiltration across the Line of Control cannot occur unless there is some kind of assistance and/or degree of support that is institutional in nature. He described several incidents of infiltration that occurred this year, including that of 40 terrorists in March who were found possessing significant ammunition and other equipment."

He said that India was worried that some part of the huge US military package to Pakistan would "find its way to the hands of terrorists targeting India,".

Furthermore, if "we can catch them (the infiltrators), why can't the Pakistani military?" the cable quoted Gen Kapoor, as saying. "There's a trust deficit between the U.S. and Pakistan but there's also one between India and Pakistan," he stressed.

When Jones asked him "how the Pakistanis react when the Indians confront them with these incidents," Kapoor replied that the Pakistanis "remain in denial mode, but fortunately today India's counter-infiltration posture is stronger than in the past."

Asked about the percentage of infiltrators that get through, Gen Kapoor "estimated between 15 to 20 percent, but cited the challenge posed by India's open border with Nepal," and asserted that this year (2009), at least 16 terrorists entered India through Nepal and then traveled to Kashmir. Throughout his remarks, Kapoor stressed that infiltration bids were "acts of aggression," said the cable, whose subject was "NSA Jones discusses US-India security.

Regarding terrorist camps in Pakistan, Jones told Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Gen Kapoor that the US "will take up the issue with Pakistan." (ANI)