New ‘Terror Factory’ In Pak’s Abbottabad, Where Bin Laden Had Base: Sources
Three terrorist outfits – the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, all banned by the Indian government – have set up a joint training camp in Pakistan’s Abbottabad, in a campus belonging to that country’s Army, intelligence community sources told NDTV Friday morning.
The camp, sources said, is ‘completely safe’ since there is a Pakistani Army camp right next door, making outsiders’ access to training terrorists almost impossible without permission of the military.
An unnamed General, posted to Pak’s intel agency ISI, is believed to be supervising the camp, which is training young men and women in multiple aspects of combat, including handling weapons.
Abbottabad was where former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden lived and operated a safe house – inside a walled compound that was targeted by a United States special forces military unit in May 2011. bin Laden was shot and killed in the attack. Pakistan demolished that structure in 2012.
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Intel sources have told NDTV the new training camp – it is unclear if it has been built over the ruins of bin Laden’s former safe house – s a large-scale “terror factory” run by Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin, and Masood Azhar – the bosses of the Lashkar, Hizbul, and Jaish terror outfits.
All three are on anti-terror agency NIA’s list of most-wanted terrorists.
The new camp is understood to be a recruiting centre for the three outfits.
News of the new terrorist training centre breaks after a raft of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir over the past few days, including Thursday night’s attack on an Army vehicle in Baramulla district.
Two soldiers and two civilians were killed in that attack, and three others were injured.
READ | 2 Soldiers, 2 Porters Killed In Terror Attack In J&K’s Baramulla
Hours earlier a migrant labourer – from Uttar Pradesh – had been shot and injured in Ganderbal and, three days earlier, also in Ganderbal, six construction workers and a doctor were gunned down.
That attack was among the worst on civilians in recent months, prompting newly elected Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to slam the “dastardly and cowardly” strike on innocent people.
A day after that attack, a newly-formed terror group – called Tehreek Labaik Ya Muslim – was dismantled following raids across several districts in J&K.
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