Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 3, 2001
Washington, Nov. 3. (PTI): Fulfilling
India's long-standing demand days before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
visit, the US banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad
by designating them as "foreign terrorist organisations", to further the
current campaign against global terrorism.
Secretary of State Colin Powell
accepted a recommendation by Attorney General John Ashcroft to designate
46 groups including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) as
"foreign terrorist organisations" yesterday.
The LTTE, which is waging a war
in Sri Lanka for a separate homeland for Tamils, is also among the outfits
that have been designated as foreign terrorist organisations.
"The terrorist groups designated
by the Secretary as foreign terrorist organisations maintain networks around
the world and use these networks to facilitate deliberate acts of violence
against innocent persons to further their nefarious designs," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh
welcomed the decision which could be seen as a stinging rebuttal of Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf that the terrorists active in Kashmir were "indigenous
freedom fighters."
The US does not employ the term
"ban" but the action carries the same legal consequences as a ban.
