The Hindu : India will wait and watch

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

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India will wait and watch

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 20. India has seen "some reports'' of an alleged Pakistani ban on the activities of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, but has reserved judgment on whether or not this is a significant move.

According to official sources, in the past, the other groups had been banned by Pakistan.

"We have to see whether there is a decrease or an end to cross-border terrorism,'' the sources maintained.

Islamabad had formally "banned'' the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, but these groups and their leaders continued to remain active in Pakistan.

A wait-and-watch approach by India is evident on the Pakistan front. Anti-terrorist measures, clearly, are an important benchmark as far as the quality of interaction between India and Pakistan is concerned.

In a separate development, India strongly condemned a string of heinous terrorist attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, in which at least 41 innocent civilians were killed on May 16.

``The terrorist incidents in Morocco have further underlined (the) Indian call for more intense global co-ordination against perpetrators of terrorism and their sponsors. Such co-ordinations among the victims of terrorism is not only necessary to prevent recurrence but is also imperative for safeguarding the values of tolerance and the rule of law in international society,'' the Foreign Office spokesman said.

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Ban applies to Hizb too: Pak. Minister

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