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India condemns terrorist attack on J&K state assembly

October 01, 2001
New Delhi

The Government strongly condemns the barbaric act of terrorism in today’s car bomb attack outside Jammu & Kashmir State Assembly in which at least 27 people have lost their lives as per present information. This is a dastardly attack on a democratic institution by terrorists. A terrorist organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), has already claimed responsibility for the attack and has even named one of the terrorists namely Wajahat Hussain from Peshawar in Pakistan. The claim was made from Pakistan within minutes of the attack. The JeM was created mainly with the cadres of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and by its former ideologue, Masood Azhar. It is well known that Masood Azhar was General Secretary of Harkatul Ansar (subsequently renamed Harkatul Mujahideen) which was with Osama bin Laden, a co-signatory of the notorious call for a Holy War against Americans and Jews.

Government of India has seen President Musharraf’s statement yesterday that there are no terrorist groups in Pakistan. Yet his Government has ordered the closure of offices in Pakistan of the HuM, which is a well-known terrorist organisation. This terrorist attack once again shows that notwithstanding the cosmetic steps Pakistan may take against a few organisations under international pressure, it continues to be a country that aids, abets and sponsors terrorism and terrorist networks.

The international community expects Pakistan to take action against recognised terrorist groups including Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba that also belong to the elaborate network of terrorist organisations operating freely from Pakistan and POK.

At a time when the democratic world has formed a broad and determined coalition against international terrorism, India cannot accept such manifestations of hate and terror from across its borders. There is a limit to India's patience.