12. Muzaffarabad and the Manshera district of the NWFP, which were in the epicentre of the quake, have also been for many years the epicentre for international jihadi terrorism. The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), both members of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), had their jihadi training infrastructure in the Manshera district, particularly in Balakot, which is reported to have been totally destroyed by the quake. In the beginning of this year, the Al Qaeda too had shifted one of its training camps from the Waziristan area of the Federally-administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to Manshera. There were also unconfirmed reports that bin Laden had taken up residence in the Manshera district. The LET and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), which are also members of the IIF, had their training infrastructure in Muzaffarabad. The United Jihad Council headed by Syed Salahuddin of the Hizbul Mujahideen, an indigenous Kashmiri terrorist organisation with no known links to the Al Qaeda or the IIF, was also operating from Muzaffarabad.13. No estimate is available of the damages suffered by these terrorist organisations as a result of the quake. Many foreign nationals from Indonesia, Thailand, the US, the UK and other countries were reportedly undergoing training in the camps in the Manshera district. Only the LET has so far admitted that its infrastructure in the POK has been severely damaged. A spokesman for the Jamat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of the LET, admitted at Islamabad on October 8, 2005, that mosques, hospitals, schools and madrasas run by the LET in the POK were destroyed by the quake. He added: ''Many of our members have been killed. They are in scores while several others are still trapped under the rubble.''
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15. The POK-based United Jihad Council (UJC) has announced that it would suspend its operations in the earthquake-hit areas of Jammu & Kashmir. A statement issued by it on October 9, 2005, said: âSyed Salahudin has directed UJC cadres to halt their operations in the affected areas.â Before the issue of this announcement, unidentified terrorists shot dead five members of two Hindu families in the southern district of Rajouri on October 9, 2005. The same day, another group of terrorists clashed with an Indian Army patrol in the Gulmarg area. Eight of the terrorists were reportedly killed in the ensuing exchange of fire.
16. The Taliban and the Al Qaeda remnants operating from Pakistan have sought to convey an impression that the quake has not affected their capability for operations inside Afghanistan. One Salimullah Khan Mujahid, who now projects himself as the spokesman of the Taliban after the recent arrest of Latifullah Hakimi, his predecessor, by the Pakistani Security Forces, claimed on October 10, 2005, that Taliban fighters hit a US helicopter with anti-aircraft rockets in the eastern Nuristan province. This is the third instance this year in which the Taliban has claimed to have shot down US helicopters.The US military command in Afghanistan has so far confirmed only one of these claims. There were unconfirmed reports that a US military spokesperson had also confirmed a second claim.