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Binoo Joshi in Srinagar
India had alerted the US way back in 1999 about the possible links between the flying schools in that country and terrorists, but the warnings were not taken seriously by the American intelligence agencies, official sources said on Tuesday.
Sources said Indian investigators stumbled upon the information following the gunning down of a militant belonging to the Al Badr terrorist group in Gool area of Udhampur district of the state in February 1999.
The terrorist, Nadeem, was carrying his flying instructor's licence that showed he was trained in the US. He had first received training in Karnal in Haryana and then shifted to Georgia, US, where he had become an instructor at a flying school.
Investigations showed that Nadeem belonged to an affluent family of Srinagar with connections in Pakistan, Lebanon and the US, the sources said, adding the information was passed on to the US authorities within days of his killing.
From the US, Nadeem shifted to Pakistan and was allegedly pushed through to the Indian side via Poonch in the Jammu region, now a major infiltration route for terrorists. He trekked along the mountains and reached Gool where he was challenged and killed in a fierce firefight with security forces, said the sources.
"We had alerted the US intelligence agencies and thought that they would gather further details, but no one came forward with further details," an official, who had conducted the probe in 1999, told IANS.
Sources said a fresh copy of the 1999 investigations were given to the US authorities after the September 11 terrorist strikes at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington as part of the intelligence sharing arrangement between the two countries.
"Now it is up to the United States to gather more information on the flying schools and the pilots being trained there," the official said.
Indo-Asian News Service
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