New Delhi, July 4: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday designated 23 operatives of banned outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), The Resistance Front (TRF) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as individual terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), officials said.
The notifications issued by the MHA said the designated individuals were involved in terror attacks, recruitment of youth, cross-border infiltration, terror financing, arms smuggling, and providing logistical support for terrorism in India.
Eleven of the 23 are natives of Jammu and Kashmir, while the remaining are Pakistani nationals. Seven of the J&K natives are currently based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and four are residing in Pakistan, according to the MHA.
The seven J&K natives based in PoK are: Masood Ilyas Kashmiri (Rawalkot), Mufti Muhammad Asghar Khan (Abbaspur), Hafiz Abdul Shakoor (Kotli), Abdullah Jehadi (Kundalshahi, Neelum), Ghulam Fareed (Bading, Bimber), Bilal Ahmad Mir of Sopore (Muzaffarabad) and Abid Qayoom Lone of Baramulla (PoK).
The four J&K natives residing in Pakistan are: Haroon Rashid Ganai of Anantnag, Nazir Ahmed Gujjar of Doda, Owais Farooz Mir of Pulwama and Mohammed Shaheed Faisal, originally from Bengaluru, who is now based in Rawalpindi.
The MHA said 10 of the newly designated individuals are affiliated with JeM, while 13 are linked to LeT, with some also associated with TRF or JuD.
According to the Ministry, the operatives were involved in recruiting and training terrorists, facilitating infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, planning and executing attacks, supplying arms and ammunition through drones and cross-border networks, raising funds and managing terror camps.
Several JeM operatives have been linked to the 2016 Nagrota Army camp attack and the 2022 Sunjwan attack on security forces, the notifications said.
Senior Pakistan-based operatives designated include Abdul Rauf, Hafiz Khalid Waleed, Maulana Saifullah Khalid, Mohammad Yaqoob, Molana Yousaf Taibi, Qari Yaqub Sheikh, Rana Iftikhar, Waseem Noor Jat, Ashfaq Ahmad, Maulana Imdad Ullah Makki and Mohammad Mussadiq.
In a separate notification on Mohammed Shaheed Faisal, the MHA alleged that he has links with LeT, JeM, Al-Qaeda and ISIS modules, accusing him of recruiting youth through social media, arranging weapons training in Pakistan, raising funds, training operatives in encrypted communications and fake identities, and facilitating delivery of arms and ammunition.
The Centre exercised its powers under Section 35 of the UAPA after concluding that the 23 individuals were involved in terrorism, the MHA said. With the latest additions, the total number of designated individual terrorists under the Fourth Schedule of the UAPA has risen to 80, officials added.
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