MHA designates 23 Pakistan-based individuals as terrorists under UAPA

The Union Home Ministry has designated 23 Pakistan-based individuals linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other organisations as terrorists under the UAPA. Their inclusion raises the total number of designated individual terrorists to 80, enabling authorities to freeze assets and curb financial activities

New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Saturday designated 23 individuals based in Pakistan, linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other organisations, as “terrorists” under the UAPA, a government order said.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), empowers the central government to add the name of an individual as a designated terrorist if it believes that the individual is involved in terrorism.

---

Including the names of terrorists in the list will allow the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to block their finances, impose an embargo on arms sales and seize their assets.

In 2019, the anti-terror law was amended to include individual terrorists in the list. Before the amendment, only groups could be listed as terrorist organisations.

On Saturday, 23 Pakistan-based terrorists, including those involved in attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, were added to the list, taking the total number to 80.

The Centre has added Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, Mohammad Mussadiq alias Doctor, Mufti Muhammad Asghar Khan alias Abu Saad, Hafiz Abdul Shakoor alias Qari Zarrar, Abdullah Jehadi, Ghulam Fareed, Maulana Imdad Ullah Makki and Waseem Noor Jat.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists Firdous Ahmad Bhat, Haroon Rashid Ganai, Bilal Ahmad Mir, Abid Quyoom Lone, Nazir Ahmed Gujjar, Abdul Rauf alias Hafiz Adbul Rauf, Ashfaq Ahmad, Hafiz Khalid Waleed, Maulana Saifullah Khalid, Mohammad Yaqoob, Molana Yousaf Taibi, Owais Farooz, Qari Yaqub Sheikh, Rana Iftikhar and Mohammed Shaheed Faisal (also linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS) have also been added to the list.