|
U.S. Expresses Special Interest in Resolving Pak-Indian Conflict
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Reports that Osama bin Laden has fled to Kashmir and that Pakistani-Indian tensions are on the rise, may have serious ramifications on the expansion of U.S.'s "war on terrorism".
RaiTre, an Italian television station, reported Friday that bin Laden fled to Kashmir with the help of Pakistan's secret services.
An unidentified informer who appeared on RaiTre public television, his back to the camera, said bin Laden left his secret base in the Tora Bora mountain area in eastern Afghanistan December 12, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The informer, carrying documents said to belong to the Pakistani secret services, also said 2,000 men belonging to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had succeeded in fleeing Afghanistan to various places, including Kashmir and the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.
The United States said Friday that it had every confidence in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's capacity to combat terrorism, as Islamabad mulled a U.S. request to take aim at groups targeted by President George W. Bush's administration, reported AFP.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush would support Musharraf as he moved to combat "terror" groups, as tensions escalated between India and Pakistan over an attack on India's parliament last week blamed by New Delhi on Pakistani activists.
"President Bush has every confidence in President Musharraf's capacity to act against the terrorists," he said. "The president calls on him to take action against the Lashkar-i-Taiba, the Jaish-i-Muhammad and other terrorist organizations, their leaders and their finances."
Both those groups, which are based in Pakistan and are waging an uprising against Indian troops in Indian-occupied Kashmir, were named by India as chief suspects in the parliament attack last week in which 14 people, including the six gunmen, were killed.
India accused Pakistani intelligence of backing the attack, and threatened retaliation.
Bush on Thursday froze the assets of the Lashkar-i-Taiba in the latest stage of his global "war on terrorism".
A government spokesman in Islamabad said Friday that Pakistan would freeze the assets and accounts of another group - the Pakistani-based Umma Tameer-e-Nau, which Bush has also moved against.
The spokesman, Anwar Mahmood, said the government would issue an advisory to the central bank to freeze the group's assets. An announcement concerning action against Lashkar-e-Taiba is scheduled for Saturday, Mahmood told AFP.
Bush said Umma Tameer-e-Nau had provided nuclear arms data to bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Mounting Indo-Pakistan tensions reached new heights as India recalled its ambassador from Islamabad and Pakistan threatened "counter-measures" against a build-up of Indian troops along the border.
But the United States said that the ambassadorial recall was an internal Indian matter, and reacted calmly to rising anger in South Asia.
"As we've always said, we think it's important for India and Pakistan to avoid fighting each other. At this point, they've avoided fighting each other," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
On Friday, Bush said that the United States was "very much involved" in defusing tensions between Pakistan and India, sparked by what he denounced as a terrorist attack on parliament in New Delhi.
"A flare-up in that region could really create severe problems for all of us that are engaged in the fight against terror," he said of the nuclear rivals during a roundtable with a small group of reporters.
Speculation has been mounting that the United States will be forced to plunge deeper into peacemaking in South Asia, especially if rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals become even more inflamed, especially over Kashmir.
But asked whether he would appoint a special envoy to the region, Bush replied: "No, we don't need one", and said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had been in contact by telephone with officials in the region.
In the past two days, Powell has spoken once each with Musharraf and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and twice with Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Abdul Sattar, according to U.S. officials.
"We're mindful of the potential there in the area and we're on the phone," said Bush, who renewed his offer of anti-terror aid to India and his condemnation of the attack on New Delhi's parliament.
"One of the things that we can do is help provide information to the Indians to get to the root of that terrorist attack," he said.
"We're interested in routing terror where it may exist; that's why I strongly condemn the terrorist attack that took place on the Indian parliament," the president said in the Oval Office.
"President Musharraf strongly feels the same way I do, that's why he condemned the attack," added Bush, who declared a U.S.-led global war on terrorism after the deadly September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
|
