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| India-Pakistan |
| LeT will continue Armed Struggle™ against India |
| 2008-12-17 |
| Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) on Tuesday once again denied that it was behind the Mumbai carnage, as Indian officials allege, and vowed to continue its armed struggle against India's hold over a part of the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. "Our fight for Kashmir's freedom will continue. It is our only agenda," LT spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi said in a telephone call to AFP's correspondent in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-held Kashmir. He accused the Indian government of linking the "Kashmir freedom struggle with terrorism to give legitimacy to its occupation of our land". "We want to reassure the international community that we are not in any way involved in the Mumbai attacks. We strongly condemn such attacks," he said, calling on the United Nations to conduct an "impartial investigation into the evidence that India claims to have". Last month's attacks in Mumbai killed around 180 people, including nine gunmen, and wounded nearly 300 others. "Lashkar has no links with Al Qaeda and Taliban. Our group is active in Kashmir to end India's illegal occupation of Kashmir," the LT spokesman said. Last week the UN Security Council sanctions committee targeted four LT members for an assets freeze and other sanctions. Pakistan has also cracked down on the group and an Islamic charity, Jamaatud Dawa, regarded as a front organisation. Ghaznavi called on the UN to "review its decision, as our group has no links or relations with Al Qaeda and the Taliban". LT has been named for several attacks in India, including the 2001 attacks on Indian parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. The group denied any involvement, but Pakistani authorities outlawed it in 2002. |
| Posted by:Fred |