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Pakistan-based militant outfits on Friday opposed any move by Islamabad to extend support to Washington in tracking Osama bin Laden, who the US said was the prime suspect in Tuesday's terrorist strikes, in Afghanistan and vowed to 'stand shoulder to shoulder with their Afghan brethren'.
A spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, in a report on the outfit's website, said the statement of President Pervez Musharraf pledging 'unstinted' co-operation against terrorism amounted to permitting interference in the internal affairs by a foreign power.
Referring to possible attacks by the US on Afghanistan to hunt down Laden, the outfit said in such a situation, "All mujahideen (holy warriors) organisations would stand shoulder to shoulder with their Afghan brethren."
The report said mujahideen organisations were opposed to terrorism as Islam never supported the killing of innocent people and civil population. However, one must differentiate between jihad (holy war) and terrorism.
"The Jihadi organisations would continue their missions and in case anyone tried to stand in their way, they would wage jihad against such a force," it said.
The report in the LeT website also quoted a spokesman of the Hizbul Mujahideen, another terrorist outfit, as saying that US itself was involved in terrorist activities and that his organisation would never support the US.
The Hizb spokesman alleged that America had been involved in all terrorist activity against Muslims all over the world and now US itself had become target of terrorism.
The Hizb spokesman said jihad was waged for a noble cause and Islam did not permit the killing of innocent civilians, woman and children. Jihadi organisations, he said, had never targeted innocent people.
The spokesman of another militant group Harkat-ul-mujahideen was also quoted as saying that any support to US against terrorism would amount to supporting 'Satanic forces'.
"If the government allows Pakistan to be used for attacks on Afghanistan, it would be a great treachery," said Maulana Sami-ul Haq, the leader of the Afghan Defence Council, an umbrella group of Pakistan's religious political parties and Islamic militant groups.
The group would urge street protests, he was quoted by AP as saying.
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