U.S. may include JeM in banned list: Blackwill

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLKATA, OCT. 3. The U.S. Ambassador to India, Mr. Robert D. Blackwill, today hinted that the U.S. may include the Jaish-e- Mohammad, (JeM), the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Hizb-ul- Mujahideen in the list of banned terrorist organisations, following the suicide attack in Srinagar on Monday. The JeM had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mr. Blackwill told a press conference here that ``the U.S. had not asked for any military assistance from the Government of India''. However, as the sanctions imposed in 1998 were no longer in force, a significant improvement, especially in defence ties, was expected.

He said the list of terrorist organisations was prepared primarily to block their financial resources. ``For the moment I can only say that the list will grow,'' he said.

Asked why the U.S. Government was not declaring Pakistan a `terrorist state', he said that ``geography is not destiny but important''. Though the U.S. and its coalition members were keen to end terrorism across the globe, the international community at present was preoccupied with tackling the Al-Qaeda network. ``We went to the President of Pakistan to join us in the war against terrorism. He had agreed to it,'' he said. On whether the U.S. would try to dismantle the Taliban Government in Afghanistan, he said it had no interest in choosing a government.

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