NEW DELHI: The Home Office listed 18 Pakistan-based terrorists on Tuesday, including the main conspirators in the 11/26 attack, Mujahideen Indian chiefs, Dawood Ibrahim aides wanted for the 1993 Mumbai explosions, as well as Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahudeen and Jaish e Mohammad No. 2 Abdul Rauf Asghar – as “designated terrorists” under Annex 4 of the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act.
Among the code names added to UAPA Annex 4 are the key conspirator behind the 2001 attack on Parliament and, more recently, the Pulwama terrorist attack, Rauf Asghar; Hizbul Mujahideen chief and chief of Council of the United Jihad Syed Salahuddin; Dawood’s assistant Chhota Shakeel wanted in 104 criminal cases; and Indian Mujahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, wanted for a series of bomb blasts across the country between 2008 and 2010.
Annex 4 was added to the UAPA in August 2019 as part of the Narendra Modi government’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to terrorism. Interior Minister Amit Shah, guided by Prime Minister Modi’s “ironclad” leadership, has unequivocally reaffirmed the nation’s determination to fight terrorism, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
Key defendants 11/26 and Pakistan-based Lashker e Toiba operatives: Sajid Mir, one of the main planners of the 2008 Mumbai siege; LeT operations commander at J&K Yousuf Muzammil Butt; and head of LeT Hafiz saeedLeT’s brother-in-law and head of political affairs, Abdur Rehman Makki, is now designated as a “terrorist” under the UAPA. Both Mir and Makki were previously designated as “specially designated global terrorists” by the US Another LeT name in the updated Exhibit 4 is Shahid Mehmood Rehmatullah, deputy chief of LeT’s outlaw arm, Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) .
The main defendants in the 1999 Kandahar kidnapping case, in which Maulana Masood Azhar was released as part of a hostage exchange deal, followed by its founder Jaish e Mohammad, designated as terrorists on Tuesday, include Rauf Asghar. , who is also Masood’s brother. Rauf, involved in the establishment of training camps in Pakistan for the recruitment and training of militants, was the key conspirator in the 2001 attack on Parliament and, more recently, in the Pulwama attack that killed 40 members of the CRPF.
Ibrahim Athar and Yusuf Azhar, both involved in the Kandahar kidnapping, have also been enlisted as individual terrorists.
Apart from the head of Hizbul, Syed Salahudeen, his deputy Ghulam Nabi Khan aka Saifullah Khalid and the group’s finance chief Zaffar Hussain Bhat, aka Khursheed, were named designated terrorists. Zafar was indicted last week by the NIA in the Hizbul Mujahideen narco terror case.
Top Pakistan-based Indian Mujahideen terrorists, Riyaz Bhatkal, who according to an NIA charge sheet had escaped to Pakistan in March 2009 with the help of ISI, and Shabandri Mohammad Iqbal aka Iqbal Bhatkal, are now also designated as terrorists. .
Dawood Ibrahim’s four assistants: Chhota Shakeel, who handles all the criminal and underworld operations of the D-Company; Mohammad Anis Shaikh, who supplied weapons, ammunition and hand grenades and participated in the 1993 explosions; Tiger Memon who plotted the 1993 explosions conspiracy; and Javed Chikna – on the updated list of designated terrorists.
Others on the list are the 2002 Akshardham temple attack charged by Farhatullah Ghori and Shahid Latif, the JeM commander of the Sialkot sector involved in launching JeM terrorists in India, including those responsible for the Pathankot attack in 2016.
With 18 new additions, UAPA Exhibit 4 now has 31 designated terrorists.
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