| In 2005, Khan had decided to volunteer as an interpreter for Afghan detainees. American daughter of Afghan immigrants (her parents are Johns Hopkins-educated physicians), Khan thought they were entitled to prove their innocence. But after more than three dozen visits to the Guantánamo prison camp, Khan writes in ‘My Guantánamo Diary’ - “I came to believe that many, perhaps even most of the detainees, were innocent men who had been swept up by mistake.”A number of the men she met insisted they had been “sold to the US by bounty hunters,” after the American military dropped leaflets across Afghanistan promising up to $25,000, or nearly 100 times the annual per capita income, to anyone who would turn in members of the Taliban or Al
Qaida. |
New Delhi, December 1
After witnessing “war on Mumbai”, India is examining various options, including hiring “bounty hunters” — like the US — to eliminate Islamic terrorist groups’ master brain in Pakistan or elsewhere.
The best officers of the Indian intelligence community and the Armed Forces are looking at various options available to eliminate the menace of terrorists from across the border.
They believe that only “fortune seekers” can come up with real-time information and deliver the most wanted terrorists and the mafia dons operating from Pakistan and India, especially in Kashmir.
The view is gaining ground among the officers of the country’s domestic and foreign spy agencies as well as the intelligence wings of the Armed Forces. They feel that such clandestine operations are now need of the hour as New Delhi will never allow the Army to chase terrorists and destroy their training camps across the border.
So far, barring a few cases, Indian spy agencies have not played the game of eliminating the enemy at foreign soil. Even at the height of militancy in Punjab, they did not go for “neutralising” the known faces that were sending funds from many western countries.
In this game, Israeli intelligence agency Mossad is always cited. After the killing of the Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympic Games village by Palestinian terrorists, Mossad had sent a dedicated team to Europe and certain West Asian nations to kill the “master brain” and conspirators and it succeeded in its mission.
“It is high time that India goes for this
kind of operations or use bounty hunters, otherwise terrorists will continue to strike at their sweet will,” said a highly placed source in an Indian espionage agency.
“A war with Pakistan is not the answer. This time, terrorists deliberately selected big hotel buildings in Mumbai as their targets as they knew that Indian commandos would take several days to flush them out, and the whole world would watch their drama live. Although they died, they succeeded in their mission - creating tension between New Delhi and Islamabad,” the source said.
According to him: “It does not suit Pakistan’s new political leadership to invite India to attack it by carrying out the Mumbai-style terrorist operations. One has to first examine what was the motive of the terrorists. Tension between New Delhi and Islamabad suits only Pakistan’s army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which would like to be back in command.”
“Frankly, many of us see the shadow of General Musharraf lurking somewhere in the background. Through his trusted friends in uniform, he still may be calling the shots to let the army dethrone the political leadership once again by creating a war-like situation. Let us not forget the Kargil episode,” he pointed out.
Since August, reports started reaching here about the Taliban once again running weapon training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. These camps house Pakistani and Kashmir Mujhadeein.
“In view of a sharp increase in terrorist activities across India, the country’s security agencies agree with the US strategic affairs experts that the time has come to ambush Islamic terrorist organisations’ planners at their base itself,” he said.
Unofficially, the US security and intelligence agencies are running “bounty hunting” operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to catch the Al-Qaida, Taliban and other Mujaheedin warlords.
“Why not? We should also run similar operations across the border and in Kashmir,” said a senior officer associated with electronic surveillance at India-Pakistan border.
With Washington’s blessings, the war on terror has thrown up all kinds of people in the race for bounty hunting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They include: Special Forces’ ex-soldiers and Green Beret commandos, mercenaries, army misfits, contract killers and criminals. They are given tactical support by American intelligence and security agencies. The US has offered $50 million reward for catching elusive Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden dead or alive.
“When the police can offer a reward for catching dacoits and history-sheeters, why not give a reward for nabbing terrorists, dead or alive, who kill not only for money but also for implementing their controllers agenda,” said a senior Intelligence Bureau officer.
Despite a major risk, many Indian intelligence officers believe that there is no harm in launching a “bounty hunting” operation for specific targets in Kashmir, Pakistan, PoK, Bangladesh or elsewhere.
