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JuD ban in Pakistan’s interest: U.S.

Washington: Pakistan has banned the Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) for its own interest and not because it was warned by the Bush administration that it stood to be branded as a terrorist state, the U.S. has said.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack was asked to clarify a statement by Pakistan’s Defence Minister that Islamabad had to ban the JuD because if that had not happened, it would have been branded a terrorist state.

“Is that the message the U.S. has sent out?” Mr. McCormack was asked. “No,” he replied.

“Pakistan did this because it saw it in its interest. As we have said many, many times over, the threat from violent extremists is as much a threat to Pakistani people and the Pakistani government as it is to anybody else. All that said, it’s a welcome step that they took,” he said.

“This is a day-by-day process, and it’s something that requires vigilance every single day, fighting terrorism,” he said, making the point that at no time was there any talk of branding Pakistan as a terrorist state.

He said the tensions between India and Pakistan are also likely to be touched upon by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits the U.N. next week for discussion on a range of issues, including Zimbabwe and piracy.

He was also asked to clarify if the banning of JuD, the front organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba, would be one of the topics that Ms. Rice would be covering.

“There are a lot of different things that she’s going to be talking about up there. I’m sure that she will touch on the issues related to India and Pakistan. I know that [British] Foreign Secretary Miliband, at least at this point in time, plans to be up there and she plans to see him. And if they do get together, I’m sure that that topic will come up,” he added. — PTI

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