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Harkat-ul-Ansar say

Jehad will be

spread to other

parts of India

SRINAGAR: A spokesman for a Muslim militant group which has issued death threats against Hindu pilgrims said on Saturday its guerrillas would spread their "holy war" to other parts of India after freeing Kashmir.

"After we free Kashmir, we'll move into other parts of India to fight "jehad' for all those people who are faced with tyranny, particularly Muslims," a spokesman for Harkat-ul-Ansar told Reuters, using the Urdu word for holy war.

The Harkat-ul-Ansar member, who insisted he be identified only as a spokesman, was talking at a hideout outside Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state which has been torn by a five-year-old separatist rebellion.

Surrounded by armed militants, he held a Kalashnikov rifle and had three grenades and a knife tied to his waist. They all wore traditional "pathan" dress, and two had black turbans.

Harkat-ul-Ansar said it had exploded four bombs this week along a Hindu pilgrimage route high in the Himalayas, killing 18 paramilitary troopers and a government worker. The authorities said there were only two blasts and one death.

Indian officials believe Harkat-ul-Ansar is linked to Al-Faran militants who abducted five western tourists in Kashmir in early July. Harkat-ul-Ansar denies any ties.

"It is absolutely wrong and baseless to say that we are holding the western tourists," said the Harkat-ul-Ansar member.

He said Harkat-ul-Ansar's leader, Moulana Farooq, had appealed last month for the release of the hostages. He made his plea in Muzaffarabad, capital of the one-third of Kashmir that Pakistan controls.

"Shouldn't that have made it clear to all that we are not Al-Faran nor are we even remotely connected with the abductions," he said.

The Harkat-ul-Ansar member said he was surprised by the intense international interest in the fate of the Western hostages, now in their second month of captivity.

"The whole world seems to be on thorns after these five Westerners were taken hostages," he said.

"We respect every human life but the civilised world should also think of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims who are faced with the worst kind of human rights violations."

He said Harkat-ul-Ansar drew "mujahideen", or freedom fighters, from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Sudan and Lebanon.

He added most had fought in Afghanistan. He said they were not mercenaries as they did not fight for money but for Allah.

The spokesman said Harkat-ul-Ansar would maintain its threat against Hindu pilgrims who were leaving the region on Saturday after completing an annual pilgrimage.

The spokesman declined to say how many people belonged to Harkat-ul-Ansar but said its ability to set off bombs along the pilgrims' route despite the deployment of some 50,000 security personnel showed its strength, he said.-Reuter