U.S. group demands ban on India's VHP and Bajrang Dal

State Department should declare them as Hindu terrorist organizations

ST LOUIS, MO: Pakistan American Democratic Forum has urged the US
administration to declare India's extremist groups, Vishva Hindu
Parishad and Bajrang Dal as terrorist organizations for their activities against
Muslims and Christians. They have urged all concerned Americans to call on the US State
Department to press this demand.

In a statement the PADF leaders said that the extremist activities of
these groups are well known and documented. Even the Indian opposition
parties have stepped up their demand to proscribe fundamentalist Hindu groups
like the Bajrang Dal. The Madhya Pradesh state Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh, on Sept. 29, 2001, demanded that a ban should be imposed on Hindu
fundamentalist organizations like Bajrang Dal for their attempt to
vitiate communal harmony in the country. Singh had given Advani a list of 16
against Bajrang Dal registered in different parts of the state during the past
two years.

Dr. Shabbir Safdar, a PADF member said there are terrorist groups in
India which are burning missionaries, destroying churches and mosques. With
the government sanctions they are carrying on assassinations. This is the
terrorism at its worst.

"If the people who are fighting for their rights need to be investigated
then we need to investigate organized groups in India which are
killing, burning and razing houses of Christians and Muslims. We demand that the
US takes steps to ban the terrorist groups the terrorist groups like,
Bajrang Dal and VHP.

Dr. Safdar went on to say that violence in any form is deplorable and
no nation has ever condoned it and advocated it. However, terrorism need
to be defined. India is using the Israeli tactics by calling the Kashmiri
fighters as terrorists. The people of Kashmir were promised by the United
Nations, the US and others that they will given a right to self-determination.

Another PADF member, Prof. Bashir Hussain, said there are many
anti-Muslim and anti-Christian groups and organizations in India like VHP and
Bajrang Dal which are involved in terrorism and should be banned.

"There should be a distinction between freedom fighters and terrorists.
Only Muslim organizations are considered as terrorists. India's focus is to
equate the Kashmiri fighters with terrorism and there is a history to
the dispute. There are UN resolutions which are being completely ignored.
What lies at the heart of the dispute is the inextinguishable right of
people to self-determination."

He added that the US should mediate in such problems that are on the
UN agenda such as Kashmir instead of putting pressure on one side only.

Dr. Agha Saeed, another PADF member, was of the view that the global
campaign against terrorism must be globally fair and even-handed.
Otherwise the US campaign against terrorism will become a tool of oppression in
the hands of countries like India.

He said: "It is incumbent upon every person of goodwill to call on the
Secretary of State, Mr. Collin Powell and askm him to take the same
action against the VHP and Bajrang Dal as he has taken against
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad." "A law without general application is a handmaiden of nepotism, favoritism and elitism", Dr. Agha Saeed concluded.

Mr. Aurangzeb, another PADF member said that it is unfortunate that the
world has ignored the activities of VHP and Bajrang Dal who have been
involved in killing Muslims and Christians. "They have launched a
terror campaign against the Muslims and Chritians but the western media has
completely overlooked their actions."

He pointed out that the ideology of these organizations is anti-humanist and
racist. The PADF is seeking a meeting with a high level meeting with the State
Department officials in this respect and has appealed all the concerned
Americans in general and Pakistani Americans and Muslim Americans in
particular to contact the State Department calling for a ban on the
Indian terrorist organizations.