JK News Today
Jammu , April 14
The Ministry of Home affairs has designated Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar alias Mushtaq Latram as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act ( UAPA), for his terror activities while he was in India and now in Pakistan. He has been described as a threat to world peace in the notification issued by UAPA .
Zargar was one of the three terrorists along with Masood Azhar, who later formed Jaish-e-Mohammad , and Umar and Sheikh Omar who had beheaded British nationals in India and subsequently murdered Wall Street Journal Bureau chief for South Asia Daniel Pearl in Pakistan , who were set free in exchange of the hijacked passengers and crew of IC 814, the Indian airliner that was hijacked on its way from. Kathmandu to Delhi via Lucknow on December 25, 1999. The three terrorists were set free on December 31st, 1999 to secure the release of the 155 passengers and crew of the hijacked plane that was parked in Kandhaa, Afghanistan .
Mushtaq Zargar , a resident of Srinagar, was chief of the terror group Al-Umar- Mujahadeen and symbolized the brutal form of murders, including bombing a human being publicly to spread terror in the minds of people . He was known for all sorts of atrocities on the people in Kashmir.
The MHA ‘s notification designating Mushtaq Zargar as terrorist will enable the security agencies in the country to attach his or associates’ properties believed to be purchased from proceeds of crime.
With this, anyone staying in touch with him becomes an offender under the law,.
Zargar is the fourth individual to have been designated as a terrorist by the Centre in the last one week and the 35th individual to have been declared a designated terrorist by the government.
In a notification, the Union Home Ministry said, Zargar alias Latram, 52, belongs to Nowhatta in Srinagar and is the “founder and chief commander of terror group Al-Umar-Mujahideen and had been affiliated with the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front.”
Zargar is currently based in Pakistan where he had gone in the late 1980s to receive arms training.
The home ministry said Zargar has been running an incessant campaign from Pakistan to fuel terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
He has been involved in various terror crimes, including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, planning and execution of terrorist attacks and terror funding, it noted.
The home ministry said Zargar is a threat to peace, not only to India but around the world, with his contacts and proximity to radical terrorist groups like the Al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Central government believes that he is involved in terrorism and is to be notified as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the Central government hereby makes the following in the Fourth Schedule to the said Act, after serial number 34 and entries relating thereto, the following serial number and entries shall be inserted, namely:- 35.” the notification said.
With this move, the government, through security agencies, would be able to attach his or his associates’ immoveable and moveable properties believed to have been purchased from proceeds of crimes.
On April 8, the government had designated Hafiz Talha Saeed, a key leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the son of 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, a terrorist.
On April 12, Ali Kashif Jan, the Pakistani handler of the 2016 attack on Pathankot airbase, has been designated as a terrorist by the government.
The Act empowers the Central government to notify the name of an individual in its Fourth Schedule if it believes that he is involved in terrorism.
