Times of India : UK terror has ISI, Kashmir links

UK terror has ISI, Kashmir links

September 16, 2006

LONDON: The much dreaded ISI-Al Qaida-Taliban-Kashmiri militant nexus has come to light in a London courtroom where the hearing in the March 2004 fertiliser bomb terror trial is on.

One of the main accused in the trial, Omar Khyam has made a few startling statements in his defence that clearly establish a growing merger of Al Qaida and the Kashmiri militants under the aegis of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Khyam, 24-year-old British Muslim, told the court on Thursday about his radicalisation process after a visit to an ISI-backed Pakistani training camp for militants fighting in Kashmir and a trip to Afghanistan to meet the Taliban.

Khyam was arrested along with six others including his brother Shujah Mahmood in 2004 after fertiliser explosives were found in a storage depot in west London. He and his associates, alleged to belong to terror cell of Al Qaida, have been charged of plotting to bomb nightclubs and other places in United Kingdom.

In his testimony on Thursday, Khyam stated how he came to know of the fighting in Kashmir between India and Pakistan with the ISI recruiting and training irregular mujahideen. A Guardian report quoted Khyam as saying, "I wanted to dedicate myself to helping Kashmiri Muslims, and go to Pakistan for military training". In January 2000 he ran away to Pakistan and joined an ISI-run training camp for militants in the mountains near Rawalpindi.

Khyam's deliberations in the court, where he narrated about his transformation from an ardent fan of the English football team to a radical terrorist, who "was happy" when the twin towers of World trade Centre collapsed on 9/11, have baffled many here.