PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 15 (AFP) - Pakistani border guards have arrested 36 activists of Islamic parties returning from a visit to Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
The arrests in North Waziristan, a tribal town on Afghanistan's border, were made on Sunday, a local administration official said, requesting not to be identified by name. "They were not carrying any visas or travel documents," he said.
Party sources said the detained activists were from Lashkar-i-Taiba, Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) and some other Muslim groups active in an independence campaign in the Indian-held Kashmir.
Belonging to the southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces, they were planning to participate in fighting in Kashmir and in Afghanistan, the statement said.
The arrests appeared to be part of the government's plan to curb the activities of religious parties on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton's March 25 visit to Pakistan, a JUI leader Mufti Manzoor Ahmed said.
In a statement released in the central city of Multan, Ahmed said: "Our jihad will automatically stop if Indian troops engaged in the killings of Muslim population withdraw from Kashmir."
Amir Hamza, a spokesman for Lashkar-i-Taiba, said the move was aimed at appeasing the U.S. president. However he said Clinton will not succeed if his mission was to declare mujahedeen groups as terrorist parties. "We will not only oppose but also stage protest against any such move," he added.
Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both.
More than 25,000 people have died in a decade-old independence campaign in the Indian-held zone of the Himalayan territory.
Pakistan denies Indian charges of fueling the jihad, but vows political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris' struggle for their right to self-determination.
