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'No curbs on Azhar's anti-India diatribe'

Pakistan has not imposed any restrictions on the anti-United States and anti-India diatribes of freed terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, the district magistrate of Bhawalpur (Punjab) has said.

Javed Akhtar told English-language daily The Dawn that Azhar was moving about freely. At an Id congregation in Bhawalpur he gave a call for jehad against India, and the paper said 500 men volunteered to join him.

It is said that Azhar had assured the Pakistan government that he would not criticise the United States. The assurance came after Washington warned Pakistan that it would be held responsible for any violence resulting from his statements.

Masood Azhar had criticised India and the United States in his first press conference at Karachi after returning to Pakistan.

Azhar was released from a Jammu jail along with two others in lieu of the 155 Indian Airlines passengers held hostage in Kandahar aboard an Indian Airlines plane.

UNI

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