Violence not only answer to Kashmir - Lashkar-e-Taiba

By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - The banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai attacks that killed 179 people, said on Monday for the first time that armed struggle was not the only way to deal with Kashmir.

The Pakistan-based Islamist group has claimed responsibility for scores of suicide attacks on security forces in its fight against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

"We don't see the armed struggle as the only way to achieve our goal, if the world listens to our cries and plays its role in resolving the Kashmir issue," Abdullah Ghaznavi, a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), said in a statement.

Tensions flared between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan after the attacks, as India demanded its neighbour clamp down on militants operating from its soil.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the attacks must have had the support of official agencies in Pakistan, a charge which Pakistan strongly denies.

India blames the LeT for the three-day assault on Mumbai in November. The group has denied responsibility.

Islamabad has detained scores of members of the LeT and an affiliated Islamic charity, but India wants Pakistan to dismantle what it calls the "infrastructure of terrorism".

"We just want freedom and if it comes peacefully we will welcome it. Once the issue is resolved there will be no need to keep fighting," Ghaznavi said.