Centre declares 23 Pakistan-based JeM and LeT operatives terrorists under UAPA

The Union home ministry has designated 23 Pakistan-based operatives linked to terror groups including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as individual terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), citing their alleged roles in infiltration, recruitment, arms smuggling and planning attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

The latest notifications take the total number of individuals designated as terrorists under the UAPA to 80.

Among those named are three close associates of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed — Abdul Rauf, a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader; Hafiz Khalid Waleed, another senior LeT-JuD functionary; and Rana Iftikhar, who is accused of coordinating jihadist activities and recruiting youths for terrorist operations.

The Centre amended the UAPA in August 2019 to empower the government to designate individuals, and not just organisations, as terrorists. The provision enables agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to freeze assets, restrict access to funds and impose other legal sanctions on those designated.

The list of individuals already designated under the law includes Hafiz Saeed, JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and US-based Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

According to the notifications issued on Saturday, one of the newly designated individuals is Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, a senior JeM functionary operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Home Ministry alleged that he played a key role in recruiting and training militants and facilitating their infiltration into India. He has also been linked to the April 22, 2022, attack on security forces in Sunjwan, Jammu.

Another individual designated is Mohammad Mussadiq, alias Doctor, whom the ministry described as JeM’s principal handler for infiltrating Pakistani terrorists into India. The government alleged that he was involved in planning terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, supplying arms and ammunition through drones across the border and overseeing JeM’s cyber network to recruit youths through social media. He has also been linked to the Sunjwan attack.

The third prominent JeM functionary added to the list is Mufti Muhammad Asghar Khan, alias Abu Saad, whom the ministry identified as a launching commander responsible for facilitating the movement of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir. The notification alleged that he was among the masterminds of the November 29, 2016, attack on the Indian Army camp in Nagrota, Jammu.

The Home Ministry said the newly designated individuals have been involved in a range of terrorist activities targeting India, including recruitment, training, cross-border infiltration and the planning and execution of attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.