Target terror leaders in Pak: India tells US

09-18-2001, 01:43 PM

Target terror leaders in Pak: India tells US

NEW DELHI: Beyond the campaign against Osama bin Laden, terror leaders
in Pakistan should also be the target of America's war against
terrorism, India said Tuesday as it observed a day of mourning for
the victims of the US attacks.

"We are trying to tell America that the war against terrorism does
not end with waging war against one man," Information and
Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters. "If we are
seeking bin Laden dead or alive for what happened on September 11,
what about March 11?"

On that day in 1993, 13 car bombings in the Indian financial capital
of Mumbai killed some 800 people and destroyed the country's main
stock exchange, the headquarters of the national carrier Air India,
and several other installations across the metropolis.

The prime minister was talking here to reporters after the launch of
the Indian Business Trust for HIV/AIDS set up by the Confederation of
Indian Industry.

Asked if the US had so far made any specific requests to India,
Vajpayee said, "No specific requests". He dismissed a question on
whether India would give whatever the US sought from it in its war
against terrorism saying, "It's a hypothetical question what we'll do
then."

Home Minister L.K. Advani reportedly said in Sonepat on Tuesday that
India would give all possible help to the US in its fight against
terrorism. The Cabinet, which was briefed by External Affairs
Minister Jaswant Singh, too discussed the situation arising out of
the terror attacks on USA.

The Prime Minister said security in the country had already been
strengthened in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the US,
and "we are strengthening it further."

He, however, refused to answer a question on Pakistan imposing
conditions on support to the US.

India observed Tuesday as Anti-Terrorism Day to mourn the deaths in
the terrorist attacks - in which 250 Indians are also believed to
have been killed - and to express solidarity with the effort to
tackle terrorism. Across the country, millions stood in their homes,
work places and even on roads and playgrounds to observe two minutes
of silence.

Emotions are still raw over other terrorist attacks that have scarred
the country over the past five decades.

Islamabad has refused to hand over five hijackers belonging to the
Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, which according to Indian officials is a part
of bin Laden's international front for "jihad" - or holy war -
against Christians and Jews.

On Christmas Eve in 1999, the five men forced the crew of an Indian
Airlines jetliner at gunpoint to fly from the Nepalese capital of
Kathmandu to the Afghan city of Kandahar.

They killed one passenger and wounded another but freed almost 170 in
exchange for three top militant leaders then kept in Indian prisons,
including Maulana Masood Azhar, a feared cleric who is a friend of
bin Laden and is recognised as the international leader and financier
of Islamic jihad campaigns.

A group now led by Azhar and several other Islamic guerrilla
organizations based across Pakistan publicly collect donations and
recruit fighters to be sent to Kashmir to fight Indian security
forces in a campaign that India says has the backing of Islamabad
with weapons and arms.

Pakistan calls them "freedom fighters." India says the militants are
terrorists, and it has shared with the United States evidence that
points a finger at Pakistan as a nation that harbors and backs
Islamic guerrilla groups, and has close links with bin Laden.

US President George W Bush has threatened retaliation against the
terrorists behind the attacks and those who harbour them. India could
provide intelligence to the United States if it undertakes a military
response in Afghanistan, where bin Laden has lived since 1996,
officials say