Press Trust of India Posted online: Monday, December 19, 2005 at 0338 hours IST
New Delhi, December 18: THE United States has expressed grave concern over the involvement of militant outfits in the quake-relief operations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), even as a senior Pakistani official said there was no bar on their carrying out ‘humanitarian’ activities, media reports said.
Expressing concern over the involvement of ‘banned groups’ in the relief operations, US Envoy to Islamabad Ryan C Crocker has said it should be a matter of concern for the Pakistan Government that groups involved in violence were associated with the relief activities.
A report in the ‘Daily Times’ quoted Crocker as saying that these outfits were ‘already on the watch-list and their involvement in relief activities would facilitate them to freely operate and increase their movement.’
‘‘It is a challenge for the (Pakistan) Government. I don’t find them doing something that can’t be done by the government and internationally-recognised NGOs. Our concern is very well known,’’ Crocker said.
In an interview to Pakistani magazine ‘The Herald,’ Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) DG Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said, ‘‘With regard to the Islamic organisations, though as stated by the President (Pervez Musharraf), their activities are being monitored but there is no bar on their activities as long as they serve a humanitarian purpose.’’
Sultan also said there were several NGOs carrying out relief operations though ‘it is difficult to ensure coordination down to the tactical levels’ between them and the armed forces.
Pointing out that Jamat-ud-Dawa, the other name of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, was active in the PoK, Crocker said, ‘‘The Pakistan Government should get continued rehabilitation work in the quake-hit areas with the collaboration of NGOs rather than the Jamat-ud-Dawa,’’ the ‘Pakistan Tribune’ said.
In a related report, ‘Jang’ said, ‘‘The government has not barred them (militant outfits) from relief activities and even international aid agencies and foreign governments have worked alongside them, if not with them, in providing and distributing relief goods and services to the survivors’’ of the October 8 quake.
Besides the Lashkar, which has set up several camps and tent hospitals in the affected areas, the former Al Badr Mujahedeen, now AL sufa, was engaged in relief activities and set up similar camps in Muzaffarabad.
The Al Rashid Trust, which was also banned, has set up similar medical and relief centres, while Lashkar chief Hafeez Sayeed has visited the quake-hit areas, the reports said.
