Military

DATE=10/13/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=INDIA / KASHMIR GROUP (L-only)

NUMBER=2-281752

BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA

DATELINE=NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: India has welcomed a United States decision to freeze the assets of a

Pakistan-based militant group operating in the Kashmir region. The group was

on a new U-S list of 39 organizations and individuals with terrorist links. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the decision to freeze the assets, comes days before U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to visit India and Pakistan.

TEXT: Indian officials have described the ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammad group

as an important step in addressing New Delhi's concerns that the fight

against terrorism should be widened to include Kashmiri militants.

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The Jaish-e-Mohammad group was established by an Islamic cleric, Maulana

Massod Azhar -- one of the three militants released by India in return for a

Indian Airlines plane hijacked in 1999 to Afghanistan.

/ / / end opt / / /

The Pakistan-based group first claimed and then denied responsibility for a

suicide attack on the Kashmir state assembly building that killed 38 people

earlier this month.

India accuses Pakistan of funding and training militant groups such as the

Jaish-e-Mohammad, and wants them targeted in the American-led campaign

against terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge.

New Delhi fears that the United States may ignore its concerns as it seeks

Pakistan's assistance to trace Osama bin Laden -- Washington's prime suspect

in the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

A defense analyst at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Amitabh Mattoo, says

the ban on Jaish-e-Mohammad will send an important signal to the Indian

government.

/ / / INSERT MATTOO ACTUALITY / / /

I imagine the government will really be reassured that this tactical

alliance between the United States and Pakistan is not going to undermine

Indian interests and that United States is really determined to fight

terrorism in all forms and whereever its exists.

/ / / END ACTUALITY / / /

India is also expected to reiterate its concerns about a host of Islamic

militant groups operating in Kashmir during a visit by United States

Secretary Colin Powell to India and Pakistan next week.

Brahma Chellaney with the independent Center of Policy Research says there

are worries that New Delhi could face an upsurge of violence in Kashmir as

the war against terrorism unfolds in India's neighborhood.

/ / / INSERT CHELLANEY ACTUALITY / / /

One particular concern of Indians is that as these terrorists are flushed

out from Afghanistan, from their hideouts there, they will only move in one

direction because that is the only escape route. They will move into

Pakistan and Pakistan then in turn will encourage them to move into Kashmir

which would then mean a rise in terrorist violence in India. So the Indians

want to ensure that as Americans fight the terrorists in Afghanistan, they

do not turn a blind eye to the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.

/ / / END ACTUALITY / / /

Meanwhile a spokesman for the banned Jaish-i-Mohammed group has denied U-S

charges that the organization is a terrorist group, and vowed to continue

its armed struggle in Indian Kashmir. (signed)

neb/ap/kbk