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U.S. Offers Equipment to Help India Quell Kashmiri Resistance
Monday, November 26, 2001
(01:30 GMT)
News Agencies

"A terrorist is a terrorist. They are not freedom fighters. No country will be permitted to provide sanctuaries to terrorists," U.S. ambassador to India, Robert D. Blackwill, said.

NEW DELHI,India
The United States has offered India sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles and other technical equipment to quell Kashmir's long struggle for independence and combat the infiltration of fighters from Pakistan into Kashmir, the Hindu daily newspaper reported Sunday.

The purported offer was made when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Washington earlier this month to discuss the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"If India is satisfied with the equipment, it would have the option of buying them in larger quantities to strengthen its surveillance," said the report.

If confirmed, the offer would be the first shipment of U.S. aid to India to counter the independence movement in Kashmir, where up to 70,000 people have been killed in the last 12 years.

Indian security officials claim fighters periodically cross over from Pakistan into Indian-held Kashmir, where they lend support to the Kashmiri struggle.
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