Pakistan Official Aiding & Abetting Terrorism

BBC News Wednesday, 15 June, 2005, 16:30 GMT 17:30 UK

Minister accused by army chief

A former Pakistani army chief has alleged that Information Minister Sheikh Rashid used to run a training camp for separatist Kashmiri militants.

Gen Aslam Beg told the BBC's Urdu service that Sheikh Rashid ran the camp until it was closed in 1991 on orders from the prime minister at the time.

It is the second time that the minister has been accused in two days.

On Tuesday a top Kashmiri separatist leader said that Sheikh Rashid offered support to militants in the 1980s.

Sheikh Rashid, who is a Kashmiri, and Pakistan's foreign office have strongly denied the allegations.

But he has acknowledged that he provided accommodation for militants.

India has expressed concern over the allegations.

In the past, India has accused Pakistan of aiding and abetting armed militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, but Islamabad has always denied the charge.

Kashmir dispute

Allegations that Mr Rashid had offered refuge and support to militants surfaced earlier this week.

A top Kashmiri separatist leader, Yasin Malik, said he and other separatist militants had stayed in Mr Rashid's Rawalpindi farmhouse in 1988 and 1989.

"We got refuge in his farmhouse... Sheikh Rashid helped us a lot and loved us" like a brother, Mr Malik told the BBC.

However he denied having alleged in Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper that the minister had set up a training camp.

"I have never mentioned the word training," Mr Malik said.

But Gen Beg has taken the allegations further, saying that Mr Rashid did run such a camp.

"It came to my knowledge in 1990 that there was a militant training camp on Fateh Jang Road some 20km from Islamabad. I pbutted the information to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who ordered the closure of the camp in 1991," he told the BBC.

He said Pakistan's foreign ministry had had no knowledge of the camp, which he said had since been turned into a farm house.

Indian concern

Mr Rashid told the BBC that he let separatist leaders stay in his house because he felt it was his moral duty to provide them with a roof.

But he insisted he had never been involved in training people for guerrilla warfare or setting up training camps.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman called on Pakistan to close any militant training camps operating inside the country.

"Our stand remains that no effective action has been taken by Pakistan to dismantle the infrastructure of support to terrorism on a permanent basis," said the spokesman, Navtej Sarna.

The spokesman said India hoped Pakistan would abide by its commitment "not to allow any territory within its control to be used to support terrorism in any manner". ================================================================================================

The Daily Times, Lahore, Pakistan Thursday, June 16, 2005

By Shahzad Raza

ISLAMABAD: General (r) Mirza Aslam Baig, former chief of army staff, on Wednesday confirmed that Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed used to run a militant camp in Rawalpindi.

He told Daily Times that being the army chief, he had received information about the camp where militants used to receive training. ?The abandoned camp still has the signboard of Freedom House,? he said.He said the camp was established during the rise of an armed struggle in Kashmir, but was closed down in 1991 when the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif found out about its existence. Asked to comment on the denials issued by the foreign office and Sheikh Rashid himself about the camp, the former army chief said: ?I am telling you what I have in my knowledge.?

On June 13, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik made a pubic statement about the camp. The JKLF chief?s disclosure incurred a strong reaction from the Indian government and also put in doubt Sheikh Rashid?s expected visit to Srinagar later this month.

Baig said Nawaz Sharif could also confirm the existence of the militant camp. He urged the government and Sheikh Rasheed to come forward and admit the statement, saying it would adversely affect the ongoing peace process with India.

Khawaja Khalid, who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence, said he had personally visited Rashid?s camp, where militants were being trained in guerrilla warfare. ?Sheikh Rashid is a mujahid and played a great role in jihad. I would like to meet him and ask him why he is denying his involvement in training mujahideen,? he said. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, acting president Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), also confirmed that Sheikh Rashid used to run a militant camp in Fateh Jang, near Rawalpindi. He corroborated the report that Nawaz Sharif had order the camp?s closure in 1991.

Sheikh Rashid was a member of the PML-N during the period in question. After the 2002 general elections, he joined PML-Quaid-e-Azam and supported General Pervez Musharraf. ?Why do you want me to dig out skeletons from the closet? If I do that, no one in the ruling PML will come out smelling like a rose,? Nisar said. In a press statement, former interior minister Maj Gen (r) Naseerullah Babar said: ?In 1989, Shaikh Rashid himself confessed to running a training-cum-refugee camp for Kashmiris near Islamabad.? The former interior minister said even if the government pressed Yasin Malik to retract his earlier statement, it would not absolve Rashid of his past. ===============================================================================================