'Jihad' launched for quake relief

BAGH, Pakistan, Thursday (AFP) - Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir have announced a new jihad or "holy war" to help victims of the massive earthquake which struck South Asia on the weekend, killing dozens of their comrades.

Volunteers from the Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, formerly the outlawed jihadi group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blacklisted as a "terrorist organisation" by the United States, were the first group to offer aid in this badly-hit Kashmiri town after Saturday's catastrophic quake.

About a dozen young militants brought food, medicine, blankets and drinking water for shell-shocked locals, arriving days ahead of government relief teams and even the Pakistani army, witnesses said.

The militants claimed they could reach remote villages which the Pakistani army and international rescue teams had struggled to get to. Party officials said the group, despite suffering severe losses of its own, was now carrying out relief work throughout Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

"It is a jihad to help people overcome their miseries," a Jamaat activist who identified himself only as Saad told AFP.

Holding a satellite telephone and swearing a commando jacket, the youth in his early 20s was leading a group of volunteers who approached their task with solemn determination.