Author:
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: October 15, 2001
URL: http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/oct/15ny2.htm
Pakistan-based militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed
has alleged that the US froze its assets at the instance of India and threatened
to deliver a "smashing blow" to assert its authority in Kashmir.
"We warn them (Indians) to beware
of the Mujahideen. We would soon cause them smashing blow to assert our
authority. We would continue the struggle. We have not launched jihad at
the dictation of anybody and so we would not stop jihad at anybody's dictation
too," JeM leader Maulana Masood Azhar said.
He said the US has caused "big harm"
to the outfit's activities by adopting such steps "at the behest of the
Indian leaders."
"We think that America is out to
wipe out the freedom struggle of Kashmiris and we thus reject its ban on
our organisation" Azhar was quoted as saying by Pakistan's NNI news agency.
"We do not care whether the world
considers us terrorist or freedom fighters," said Azhar, who founded JeM
after he and two others militants were released from Indian prisons in
exchange for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December
1999.
An official spokesman on Saturday
said that the Pakistani government may freeze the accounts of JeM in view
of the decision by the US.
PTI
