Centre designates 23 more individuals as terrorists under UAPA
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The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has designated 23 Pakistan-based individuals as terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), taking the total number of individuals on the Centre's list of designated terrorists to 80.
The newly designated individuals are alleged to be associated with terrorist organisations including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and The Resistance Front (TRF).
Among those named is Hafiz Khalid Waleed, the son-in-law of LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who the MHA alleges was the mastermind behind the 2016 Pampore attack that killed eight CRPF personnel.
The list also includes Abdul Rauf, accused of mobilising funds for LeT through charitable organisations, and several senior JeM functionaries, including Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, Mohammad Musaddiq, Mufti Mohammad Asghar Khan, Hafiz Abdul Shakoor and Abdullah Jihadi.
The MHA has also designated several Indian nationals now residing in Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. These include Firdous Ahmad Bhat, Haroon Rashid Ganai, Bilal Ahmed Mir, Abid Qayoom Lone, Nazir Ahmed Gujjar, Owais Farooz, and Mohammad Shahid Faisal.
According to the ministry, the individuals were involved in activities including facilitating infiltration across the Line of Control, recruiting militants, supplying arms and logistics, raising funds, planning attacks and providing operational support for terrorist groups targeting India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir.
Some of those designated have also been accused of involvement in attacks on the Nagrota Army camp, Pathankot Air Force Station, the 2022 Sunjwan attack, and alleged reconnaissance of strategic sites, including the Ram Janmabhoomi complex in Ayodhya, the RSS headquarters in Nagpur and the Indian Oil refinery in Panipat.
Several of the individuals have previously been designated as global terrorists by the United States.