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Al-Qaeda operating along LoC, says Rumsfeld

NEW DELHI JUNE 12. Observing that the situation on the Indo-Pakistan border continued to be tense, the visiting U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, today said Washington had evidence of the presence of the Al-Qaeda in Kashmir and that it was discussing with India the possibility of using American ground sensors to monitor the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

``We have indications that the Al-Qaeda, in fact, has been operating in Kashmir near the LoC. We have no hard evidence of how many, who, or where they are,'' Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters, emerging from an hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in the evening.

Asked whether there was a proposal for the use of U.S. ground sensors to monitor infiltration, he said the issue did come up during his discussion with Mr. Vajpayee and other Indian leaders, but no decision was taken. The matter would be discussed by technical experts.

``Our goal is to see that there is no infiltration on the LoC and no terrorist acts. That is our interest,'' he said.

However, the deployment of foreign forces to monitor the LoC was not discussed during Mr. Rumsfeld's talks with the Indian leadership, highly-placed Indian and American sources said tonight. The clarification came in the wake of some remarks attributed to Mr. Rumsfeld.

``We discussed a whole range of subjects and I guess the honest answer is yes. That subject did come up,'' Mr. Rumsfeld had said. The question was about deploying sensors to monitor infiltration along the LoC but some got the impression that the question related to sensors as well as the deployment of foreign forces. Apparently, the answer pertained only to sensors. The U.S. Embassy spokesman confirmed that Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks related only to sensors.

PTI

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