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Sunday,
December 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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USA asks Pak to act against LeT, JeM Washington, December 22 “Now that there is evidence, the USA is confident that General Musharraf will act against them,” US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “The Indian Government has released certain evidence linking the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, both of which are based in Pakistan, to the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament House,” he said. “We do know those groups have committed terrorist acts and they intend to sabotage efforts at Indo-Pakistani reconciliation and to undermine President Musharraf,” Mr Boucher said, adding that “we know these two groups have bases in Pakistan. We know how they operate.” He, however, denied the Pakistan Government’s involvement in the terrorist attack. “We have not seen anything that would indicate that the Pakistan Government was somehow behind these attacks.” He said India-Pakistan was an area of continuing concern for the USA. “We remain heavily engaged in this process to avoid India and Pakistan fighting each other, trying to work with each of them, and we will stay that way”, he said. Mr Boucher parried questions on President Musharraf calling militant activities in Kashmir as a “freedom struggle” but did not mince words in branding the LeT and JeM as terrorist organisations. “I don’t think you can answer a question like that in a very broad and generic sense. I think you have to look at the groups involved and we have made quite clear that these two groups specifically have carried out terrorist acts and we see them as such,” he said. On the issue of India’s action after the December 13 attack on Parliament House, he said: “India has to investigate and decide what to do in terms of appropriate action, and we will leave those decisions to India.” Referring to the recent US action of freezing assets of the LeT and the JeM, the spokesman said: “We have listed these particular groups in an executive order that mandates the freezing of the assets of the terrorist organisations. We have noted in the Global Patterns of Terrorism report that these two groups have carried out terrorist acts.”
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Pak freezing of LeT assets ‘not enough’ New Delhi, December 22 Stating that New Delhi was awaiting meaningful action by Islamabad on its December 14 demarche, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs here said: “We have to see what concrete administrative measures they have taken in this regard.” The spokesperson said there was no room for prevarification for Pakistan as the time had now come for taking action. “We hope Pakistan will act in a positive manner and respond to the call by the international community to take decisive action against these terrorist groups, their leaders, finances and activities.” India has also welcomed US President George W. Bush’s call to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to take decisive action against the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and other Pakistan-based terrorist organisations. “This is precisely what we have called upon Pakistan to do. The international community will judge the response by what concrete action Pakistan takes,” she said. The spokesperson also disclosed that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Mr Vijay K. Nambiar, who has been recalled, was making arrangements for his return. Asked whether Pakistan should also recall its envoy here, she said it was for the Pakistan Government to take appropriate action. |
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