January 21, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 17, 1423

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NEW YORK, Jan 20: Indian nationals (male 18-45 years) would be required to register under the new US government laws, beginning from May or June of this year, informed sources here told Dawn on Monday.

So far the United States has asked only nationals of 25 Muslim nations and North Korea to register with the US Immigration and Naturalization Services in an effort to curb terrorism.

Nevertheless, countries like India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are expected to be placed on the list of countries whose nationals would be required to register under such laws.

However, the US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told news reporters last Thursday that the registration process was not Muslim countries specific.

“Eventually we will have structures in place for registering everyone from all countries of the world to register,” he said.

One of the reasons why the US government had not included nationals of all countries immediately was to forestall the overwhelming rush at its immigrations offices. Hence the NSEERS programme is expected to proceed in batches.