Pak. says no to U.S. call for ban on militant groups

WASHINGTON, FEB. 5. Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has rejected a U.S. call for banning the militant outfit, Harkat- ul-Mujahideen, which has been placed by Washington on its list of terrorist groups, the Washington Post reported today.

U.S. officials, deciding on whether the President, Mr. Bill Clinton, would visit Pakistan during his trip to South Asia next month, the paper said, had asked Gen. Musharraf to crack down on the Harkat after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane but he expressed his inability to do so.

Gen. Musharraf told officials, the paper said, that he was not in a position to crack down on the Harkat, partly because of pressure from Islamic groups inside Pakistan and partly because of public support for insurgency in Kashmir.

Pakistani officials, it said, acknowledged providing moral and political support to three groups in Kashmir but denied charges by India that the Inter-Services Intelligence controlled or trained them. All groups operate training camps inside Pakistan- occupied Kashmir, it said. The paper quoted one Western diplomat as saying, ``Pakistan has made a deal with the devil. They are afraid to move against these groups because of Kashmir's importance to the national psyche, but now militant Islam is starting to devour and isolate the country.''

- PTI

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