January 21, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Jan 20: India on Sunday asserted its formations will remain on Pakistan’s border until it has extradited 20 alleged fugitives, and rejected as non-serious a similar counter-demand made by Islamabad to the government in New Delhi.

The strongly worded statement came from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, who is widely seen as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s main hatchet man.

Mahajan, speaking to Star TV network, appeared to pooh-pooh a crack-down by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on extremists, as Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes speaking from the US said his army will hold the borders.

India and Pakistan massed almost a million troops on their borders after last month’s audacious attack on the Indian parliament which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based Islamic groups.

Musharraf last week began the clamp-down against Islamic extremists in Pakistan and arrested hundreds, but both Mahajan and Fernandes said a hand-over of some of the 20 most wanted by India would be a pre-condition to the border de-escalation.

On Saturday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar surprised India saying Islamabad too had its list of terrorist suspects it wants extradited from India.

“It is stalemate... We cannot take this (Pakistani) list seriously. Pakistan, even as a joke, had never made an allegation that India was sponsoring cross-border terrorism. So how can we take this seriously?” Mahajan said of Sattar’s weekend announcement.

Mahajan also rejected any talk between India and Pakistan, as long as Islamabad did not accept New Delhi’s demands. India says 14 on its most-wanted list of 20 are its citizens and wanted for attacks including the 1993 serial blasts of Bombay that killed or maimed 300.—AFP