Israeli Army chief Mr Avi Mizrahi who concluded his India visit from 9-11 September has visited Akhnoor Military base located near the Pakistan border in Jammu province of the disputed state, highly placed sources have confirmed reports to Kashmir Watch.
Indian defence sources continuously denied the reports about his visit to the state.
Observers believe that General Mizrahi’s visit was kept top secret due to the mass uprising against India in the disputed state. “The disclosure of his visit could have fuelled the fire in the ongoing protests against India,” said a college student to Kashmir Watch.
According to the sources General Mizrahi spent couple of hours at Akhnoor Military base where he lectured the high ranking officers of Indian army and intelligence engaged in counter-militancy and counter-Intifada operations.
Senior pro freedom leader and APHC (G) Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has accused India that operation yatra has been devised on the lines of Israel’s strategy of settlement in Palestine. For this purpose India has re-transferred land to SASB to pursue the similar method to settle Hindus here.
Avi Mizrahi had earlier visited India, as a Brig-General of the chief of staff of the Israeli ground forces command, in February last year for sharing of military intelligence, equipment, conducting joint training and exercises and “interoperability”. Israeli deputy chief of general staff, Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, visited Jammu & Kashmir, including the 16 Corps headquarters in Nagrota for presumably helping India with “counter- insurgency” operations. He and his delegation also held talks with senior military representatives and Defence Ministry officials on each other’s “security perspectives”.
An Indo-Israeli Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism has been set up and has held a number of meetings. The Israeli Defence Ministry Chief, Brig Gen (ret’d) Pinchas Buchris visited India in January, 2008 and held talks with National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan, Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor, Naval Chief Admiral Suresh Mehta and Air Force Chief Fali Homi Major. These talks included setting up a mechanism for intelligence sharing.
There is already an on-going relationship between Israeli Intelligence agencies and their Indian counterparts. It is well known that Mossad routinely infiltrates even “friendly” intelligence agencies and uses them to plant information which helps Israel.
