Washington: Despite agreeing with India that cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir has again increased after a temporary drop in June last year, the US finds it "increasingly difficult" to reconcile with Pakistan's support to terror due to its co-operation in US-led war in Afghanistan, a leading American newspaper reported on February 8.

Pakistan's long-standing support for those it considers "freedom fighters in Kashmir has proved increasingly difficult to reconcile with the US-led global war on terrorism", 'The Washington Post' daily reported.

It said, "Indian officials regularly argue to their US counterparts that Pakistan is on the wrong side of that war."

The report said that a year after President Pervez Musharraf announced a ban on Muslim extremist groups, several of the organisations have been reconstituted under different names and are raising funds and proselytizing for "jihad" against India and West, the paper said.

Over the past few months, 'The Post' noted, leaders of four groups banned by Musharraf have been released from house arrest or jail.

One of them, Hafiz Sayeed of Lashker-e-Toiba, has been travelling around the country to whip up enthusiasm for renewed attacks on Indian forces in Kashmir. He has addressed about 100 gatherings in last two months to "educate people about the virtues of jihad," according to an aide who spoke on conditions of anonymity.

Pakistani authorities have also released almost all of the hundreds of militants detained after Musharraf pledged on January 12, 2002 to dismantle extremist groups, the daily said quoting Pakistani officials.

PTI