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Islamabad: In a significant move to facilitate talks with India, Pakistan has banned the militant group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and said the outfit's leaders, including its chief Syed Salahuddin, have been restricted from entering PoK (Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir).

Although the outfit has been banned, no restriction has been imposed on movement of its leaders outside PoK but they could not conduct their organisational activities in the country, Interior Minister Faisel Saleh Hayat said.

At the same time, Hayat said the government of PoK has already imposed a ban on the entry of Hizb leaders into the territory, which effectively meant that its militants would not cross Jammu and Kashmir at will. He, however, did not say when the outfit was banned.

Pakistani government has already banned the entry of leaders of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e- Muhammad (JeM) into PoK.

The news of ban on Hizbul Mujahideen followed a series of statements by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that Pakistan should crackdown on the militant groups and destroy their camps to create conducive atmosphere for talks between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Hizb leaders claimed that they have not received any orders banning them, and Sardar Qayyum Khan, the leader of Muslim Conference, which governed PoK, also said that no ban was imposed on Hizbul.

Denying Hayat's statement, he told reporters in Islamabad that PoK government has not imposed any restrictions on the entry of Hizb leaders.

PTI