Washington, March 22
The USA has asked Pakistan to hand over to India 20 wanted terrorists, saying the step will lead to reduction in tension between the two countries.

Briefing Indian community leaders here on Thursday, Harry Thomas, director in charge of South Asia at President George Bush’s National Security Council, said Washington’s highest priority was to stop India and Pakistan from going to war, and handing over or trying the terrorists was important in alleviating the tension between the two.

“We have asked the Pakistanis to hand these terrorists over to India or even try them in their own country and convict them. That is very important. That will lead to a reduction in tensions. We will work hard at it,” Thomas said.

He described the terrorist attacks on the Indian Parliament and earlier on the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature as “heinous and barbarous” and said they had changed the whole India-Pakistan situation.

“Our highest priority right now is to keep India and Pakistan from going to war. A war is unthinkable. It will be devastating for the global campaign against terrorism.”

Thomas said these acts would also undermine Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf who had ordered a crackdown against jehadis.

He also stressed the need for a “political dialogue between India and Pakistan without U.S. mediation to solve the Kashmir problem.”

Members drawn from the National Federation of Indian-American Associations (NFIA), the Association of Indians in America (AIA), the Indian American Forum for Political Education (IAFPE) and the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party (OFOBJP) were present.

Earlier, at a Congressional luncheon hosted by the Indian American community, House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman also expressed disappointment at what he called Pakistan’s failure to hand over the 20 terrorists and criminals wanted by India.

He said the USA should be more careful in its support for Musharraf because he seized power by overthrowing a democratically elected government. He said: “We also need to keep a close watch on China.”