Dawood, Masood Azhar among 4 declared ‘individual terrorists’ under amended law

Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Mumbai terror attack accused Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim were on Wednesday declared individual terrorists by the government under a new anti-terror law.

The decision was taken nearly a month after Parliament approved a crucial amendment to The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 1967. They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-terror law, a Home Ministry official said.

According to the UAPA, earlier only a group could be declared as terrorist organisation. The amendments made in the Act now allows the government to declare even an individual as a terrorist. These four are involved in terrorist attacks in India and have been designated as global terrorists under the United Nations.

“Earlier when terrorist organisations were banned, the individuals associated with them simply changed names and continued to carry out terrorist activities,” said an official statement.

The Ministry cited a series of terror acts in which Pakistan-based Azhar was involved that include attacks on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly complex in 2001, on Parliament in 2001, on Pathankot air base in 2016, on BSF camp in Srinagar in 2017 and the explosion of a CRPF bus at Pulwama on February 14.

It said that Azhar was also designated as a global terrorist by the UN under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 on May 1, 2019 and was declared as a proclaimed offender by the special judge (POTA), New Delhi.