New Delhi, Aug 27 — Investigation into the various activities related to the ISI in India have found that several frontal organisations have emerged that are aimed at shielding the main terror group.
For instance, The Resistance Front is a front of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT). It was created by the ISI to give the Lashkar-e-Tayiba deniability each time an attack is carried out. Similarly, the new recruitment modules that have emerged have been carrying out activities under the names of other frontal organisations.
The Shehzad Bhatti network operated under the banner of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Hindustan (TTH). The TTH is a non-existent organisation, and the name was floated by the ISI to give a cover to the Bhatti network. The other reason behind coming up with the TTH was to try and link it with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an outfit that wreaked havoc on the Pakistani security forces.
The ISI wants to suggest that the TTH and TTP are linked and India has a hand in the activities that the latter carries out in Pakistan.
An Intelligence Bureau officials said that such frontal organisations are created not only to give banned terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba or Jaish-e-Mohammad the deniability factor. These groups are not documented by the Indian agencies, and neither are they banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
This makes it hard for Indian agencies to report such frontal outfits to international agencies and the Interpol, the official said. In recent weeks, scores of such outfits have been doing the rounds. Apart from the TTH, there are outfits such as the United Sikh Brotherhood (USB), Sikh Tigers of Khalistan (STK), Khalistan Armed Force (KAF), Sher-e-Punjab Brigade (SPB), Punjab Sovereignty Alliance (PSA) and Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA).
An official said that all these organisations are non-existent. They are fronts for the Jaish-e-Mohammad, all other Khalistani terror groups such as the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and the Shehzad Bhatti network, the official noted.
Another official said that it is a well-known fact why such names are doing the rounds. Eventually the names of the real outfit that is carrying out anti-India activity would come up.
However, it takes time before the link is established. The investigations get delayed and this gives the parent group the time to regroup and and re-strategise the official added.
Officials say that it is important that such outfits are called out and their parent terror group is identified soon. In such cases which have an ISI hand, most of the operatives are abroad. Hence it become important to involve the international agencies, officials say. For this to happen, the group needs to be under the proscribed list.
To get the United Nations or the United States to ban such outfits, it is important that they are first proscribed in India and a chargesheet is filed before the courts, officials note. However, if the investigators are able to quickly call out the parent organisation which is hiding behind such fronts, the job of getting a conviction and also having the international community to take note becomes relatively easier. Officials cite the example of the The Resistance Front.
The agencies took several months before learning that it is just a front of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Following this the The Resistance Front was placed under the proscribed list by the MHA.
Very recently, the United States too banned this outfit. Pakistan will continue to keep coming up with newer names of non-existent outfits and going forward this would be a major challenge for the Indian agencies, an official said.