Shuriah Niazi
06 September 2019•Update: 06 September 2019
New Delhi
The U.S. praised India for declaring the leader of a terror group and three others as terrorists under a new anti-terror law.
“We stand with India and commend it for utilizing new legal authorities to designate four notorious terrorists,” tweeted Acting Assistant Secretary of State South and Central Asian Affairs on Wednesday.
The Indian government designated Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), his deputy Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim under the recently-amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said: “Clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the said Act empowers the Government to notify the name of an individual in the Fourth Schedule to the Act, if it believes that he is involved in terrorism.
According to an earlier UAPA law, only a group could be declared a terrorist organization. But under the news amendments, the government can declare an individual.
Home Affairs mentioned five terror cases against Masood Azhar including a Feb. 14 attack in Pulwama in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed.
