Reports indicated that militants sneaking into Jammu and Kashmir were increasingly using air and train routes from Pakistan on the basis of fake passports instead of sneaking through the Line of Control (LoC). The Pakistan army and the ISI were reluctant to push top militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) through the LoC or the International Border (IB) for fear of them getting captured by Indian security forces. Four commanders of LeT and HM, who were arrested recently, confirmed that they had flown from Islamabad to Karachi and then took a flight from Karachi to Kathmandu. From Kathmandu, they reached Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by bus. They then took a train from Gorakhpur to Delhi and then reached Jammu from Delhi, from where they were sent to various destinations.

In addition to the Karachi-Nepal air route, some of the militant commanders have also taken the Karachi-Dhaka route and then sneaked into India via the Bangladesh border1.

• 1. “Militant comdrs develop new infiltration routes,” Daily Excelsior, May 11, 2009, at http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/09may11/news.htm#2