NEW DELHI, May 3 (AFP) -
The Indian government on Thursday outlawed an extremist group accused of staging bomb attacks on churches last year, and said the organisation's activities were incompatible with national security interests.
The federal home ministry said the regional Deendar Anjuman organisation of southern India would be banned from enlisting supporters or participating in public or private activities on Indian soil.
A ministry spokesman said the group, accused of bombing Catholic churches in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as well as Christian places of worship in the tourist paradise of Goa in May and July last year, had close links in Pakistan
"It has links with Pakistan and its activities are prejudicial to India's security," the official said.
"The organisation is engaged in the distribution of anti-Christian literature, in espionage activities and has the "potential to disturb peace, communal and secular fabric of the country.
"The Anjuman has links ... in Pakistan and has been organising band of disgruntled Muslim youths in India into a militant outfit for launching jihad (holy war) with the avowed objective of total Islamisation of the sub-continent," the spokesman said.
The now-banned group had "directed its activists to attack Christian institutions with the objective of embarrassing the Indian government, particularly in the international arena, and weakening it internally," the official said.
India accuses arch-rival Pakistan's Inter-Services-Intelligence of arming and training not only Kashmir's Islamic guerrillas but also offering help to other insurgencies in the country.