'Hand over Masood Azhar'

By Our Special Correspondent

SRINAGAR, OCT. 3. The Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, today asked Pakistan to hand over the leader of the Jaish-e- Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar, to India, and said New Delhi expected the United States to include the outfit in the list of banned terrorist organisations. At the end of his one-day visit to Srinagar, Mr. Advani told mediapersons that the JeM had owned responsibility for the attack on the Jammu & Kashmir Legislature on Monday and that Pakistan had disassociated itself from the outfit.

``Pakistan cannot deny that Maulana Azhar is there. If they (Pakistan) are honest about fighting terrorism, let them hand over the JeM leader to India so that he is brought to justice,'' Mr. Advani said. ``We believe that international terrorism is a global menace... It needs a global response and we have endorsed the stand taken by the U.S. in this regard.'' However, India strongly disapproved of the statement by the Italian Prime Minister that it was a confrontation between Christianity and Islam.

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