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MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Thursday (Reuters) Pakistani authorities have banned an Islamic militant leader, wanted in India on charges of terrorism, from entering Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials said.

The militant, Maulana Masood Azhar, had been under house arrest in Pakistan for almost a year until he was released in December. He is based in Pakistan's Punjab province and planned to address a rally in Pakistani Kashmir on Thursday.

Officials cited security reasons for preventing Azhar, whose Jaish-e-Mohammed group was outlawed by Pakistan last year, from addressing a religious gathering in Kotli district of Pakistani Kashmir.

"Keeping in view the government of Pakistan's policy, it is suggested that Maulana Masood Azhar should not be allowed to enter Azad Jammu and Kashmir so as to avoid a law and order situation," a Pakistani official said, using the Pakistani name for its part of disputed Kashmir.

Azhar was one of the three Muslim militants released by India in 1999 in exchange for the release of passengers on a hijacked Indian airliner.

The move to stop the militant travelling to Kashmir came days after the beginning of a thaw in relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, two of them over divided Muslim-majority Kashmir, since 1947.

Meanwhile India said it has told the United States it is important that Pakistan cracks down on Islamic militants in Kashmir to help the neighbours build on a thaw in their relationship.

Indian foreign minister Yashwant Sinha told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Moscow that attacks by militants fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir could disrupt New Delhi's bid to make peace with Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokesman said. "The foreign minister stressed the fundamental importance of ensuring that the process of re-engagement is not disrupted by terrorist attacks in India," spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in New Delhi after Sinha's talks with Powell.

"Secretary Powell mentioned that the United States would continue to stress upon Pakistan the need to take action on cross-border terrorist activities," Sarna said.

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