Author:
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: November 4, 2001
The US has banned two Pakistan-based
terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, conceding one of India's
major demands four days before the arrival of Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee. Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which have
been blamed for several terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, have been
branded Foreign Terrorist Organisations (PTO) in the US.
Secretary of state Colin Powell,
on Friday, accepted a recommendation by US attorney general John Ashcroft,
to designate 22 groups, including the LeT and JeM as PTO, calling upon
US financial institutions to freeze their assets. In America, it would
now be illegal for anyone to offer them arty kind of support. Six groups
are already in this category. Indian ambassador Lalit Mansingh welcomed
the long awaited development.
JeM had initially, taken responsibility
for the car bomb explosion in front of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in
Srinagar on October 1, in which 38 people were killed. But it later withdrew
responsibility, reportedly following pressure from Pakistan. Mr Vajpayee,
who arrives here Wednesday, had written to President George W Bush, drawing
his attention to the incident. India has long been demanding that LeT and
JeM be banned. An official release said to further the campaign against
global terrorism, the secretary of state, in consultation with the secretary
of treasury and the attorney general, took this step under Executive Order
13224, which Bush signed on September 23 to facilitate US efforts to stop
the flow of money to terrorist groups.
Although the US government had already
blocked any assets in this country directly linked to these groups, the
FTO designation now provides the authority to act against individuals and
organizations associated with them. Bush has made clear that the US is
engaged in a war against the scourge of terrorism. 'It is an unfortunate
fact that al-Qaeda is not the only terrorist organization. All 28 terrorist
groups designated by the FTO. maintain networks around the world and fie
these networks to facilitate deliberate acts of violence against innocent
persons to further their nefarious designs,' it said. - IANS
