Home ministry designation 10 individuals as terrorists under UAPA

With this, the list of individual terrorists has risen to 48 since the provision was incorporated

Chiefs of banned Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and (TuM) and Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) — Sheikh Jamil-ur-Rahman and Bilal Ahmad Beigh — and eight others belonging to proscribed outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have been designated as terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

With this, the list of individual terrorists, which includes Let chief Hafiz Sayeed and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has risen to 48 since the provision was incorporated in the statutes in 2019. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued separate notifications designating them as terrorists on Tuesday.

Rehman of Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, the MHA said, is presently in Pakistan and is involved coordinating the activities of LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and other amalgamates at the top level. He is also involved in smuggling of Pakistan-made explosives and movement of terrorist cadres from Pakistan to India as well in the conspiracy to launch grenade attacks on religious places in Jammu and Kashmir.

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Beigh, who heads the JKIF, is involved in smuggling of arms and ammunition into Jammu and Kashmir as well as funding terror activities in the troubled region by recruiting Kashmiri youths. He also has close contacts with "notorious underworld entities" and uses these channels to transfer funds from abroad to Kashmir.

Self-styled operational commander of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami and Jammu Kashmir Ghaznavi Force Zafar Iqbal and his colleague Rafiq Nai, who is a launching commander, are involved in narcotics and weapons as well as helping terrorist infiltration. Iqbal is also involved in terror funding activities and online recuirtment of terrorist by misusing encrypted mobile phone based messaging applications, the notification said.

Associated with LeT, Habibullah Malik found his name in the list for radicalising Kashmiri youths and recruiting them into terror outfits through his network
key handler of terrorists who carried out attack on soldiers in Bhata Dhurian in Poonch. He is also involved in drone dropping of arms and communication systems in Jammu region.

Malik has also created a wide network of hardcore militants and has been masterminding multiple terrorist attacks in the Kashmir valley, including suicide attack against Army at Hyderpora in June 2013 and killing of Station House Officer in Budgamm in December 2013.

Five members of Hizbul Mujahideen are also in the list -- Imtiyaz Ahmad Kandoo, Showkat Ahmad Sheikh, Basit Ahmad Reshi, Bashir Ahmad Peer and Irshad Ahmad.

In October 2020, the Centre had designated 18 people, including Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudeen, Indian Mujahideen founders Bhatkal brothers -- Riyaz and Iqbal -- and Dawood aide Chotta Shakeel as 'terrorists'.

In September 2019, four people, including Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Sayeed and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and on July 2020, nine Sikhs involved in Khalistan movement were declared terrorists.

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The list also includes two hijackers -- Ibrahim Athar and Yusuf Azhar -- of Indian Airlines plane in 1999 and Ibrahim Memon, who is based in Pakistan and wanted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. Athar is also a key conspirator in the 2001 Parliament attack case.

Hafiz Sayeed's brother-in-law Abdur Rehman Makki, who heads the outfit's political affairs department and served as the head of LeT's foreign relations department, Sajid Mir, a Pakistan-based LeT Commander and one of the main planners of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, and Yusuf Muzammil, accused in 26/11 as well as LeT frontal organisation Falah-i-lnsaniyat Foundation Deputy Chief Shahid Mehmood also figure in the list.

Earlier, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed's son Hafiz Talha Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed's Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir, who was involved in the 2019 Pulwama terror strike, and Ali Jan as well as AlUmar-Mujahideen founder Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar were also declared terrorists.