India welcomes pledge, maintains force at border

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to crack down on terrorism has failed to persuade India to ease the tense military standoff, and Kashmiri militants vowed on Sunday more attacks against Indian rule in the contested territory.

India welcomed Musharraf's promise to prevent Pakistan from being used as a base for terrorism and to ban five Islamic extremist groups. Two of the groups have been accused by India of the Dec. 13 attack on the Indian parliament in which 14 people were killed.

More than 1,000 people, mostly from the five groups, were rounded up during a crackdown that began just before Musharraf's speech was broadcast Saturday, Interior Ministry official Tasneem Noorani said.

Police also raided the offices of at least two Kashmiri groups not covered by the ban, members of the organizations say. At least 80 people from those organizations -- al-Badr Mujahedeen and Harkat-ul Mujahedeen -- were arrested.

"The government is targeting (militant) groups at the behest of America and India," said Mustaq Askari, an al-Badr spokesman. "But any crackdown or restrictions won't hurt our struggle. Our Kashmiri jihad will continue."

In New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh welcomed the ban on the two extremist groups blamed for the parliament attack -- Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. However, Singh told reporters India was "looking forward to full implementation of this measure" so that members of the groups do not continue their activities under other names.

"There would be a similar need to address other organizations targeting India, as also the parent organizations that spawned them," Singh said.

Meantime, India will maintain its forces along the Pakistani border, where a million heavily armed and nuclear capable troops from the two nations face one another in their largest buildup since the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war.

"The mobilization remains as it is," Indian Defense Ministry spokesman S.K. Bandopadhyay said. "We will keep the situation under observation. Whether it will ease or not is something to be seen over the next few days. Whatever (Musharraf) has said, he has to act on."

President Bush telephoned Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday to urge them to continue peace efforts.

Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to India and Pakistan on Tuesday. The threat of conflict between the two nations is one of Bush's toughest foreign policy problems.

India blames Pakistan for fueling the 12-year revolt against Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. The Himalayan territory was divided between Pakistan and India when they became independent of Britain in 1947.

"India was expecting much more and hoping that Pakistan would change its policy on Kashmir as it did on Afghanistan," said retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, former chief of the Pakistani army. "But that has not happened, which is a great disappointment for India. India tried to intimidate Pakistan by amassing troops at the border to force Pakistan to change its stand on Kashmir and get the whole Kashmir freedom movement (labeled) as terrorism."

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