India declares 4 as terrorists under tough new anti-terror law

India on Wednesday declared four individuals -- three Pakistanis and one Indian -- as terrorists under a new tough anti-terror law.

They are: Masood Azhar, chief of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed; Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba; Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi, an accused of 2008 Mumbai terror attack; and Dawood Ibrahim, a fugitive Indian underworld don.

The decisions were taken nearly a month after parliament approved a crucial amendment to The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 1967, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, an Indian Home Ministry official said.

The ministry cited a series of terror acts in which Pakistan-based Azhar was involved, including the attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly complex in 2001, attack on Indian parliament in 2001, attack on Pathankot Air Base in 2016, attack on a BSF camp in Srinagar in 2017, and an explosion of paramilitary personnel's bus at Pulwama on February 14 this year that left 40 people dead.

Azhar was earlier 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.

On Hafiz Saeed, the Home Ministry said he was involved in various attacks including Red Fort in 2000, a CRPF camp in Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), India's worst terror strike in Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed, and the attack on a BSF convoy at Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015.

Saeed, also the founder of Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), was designated as a global terrorist by the UN under the United Nations Security Council Resolution-1267 on December 10, 2008.

On LeT commander Lakhvi, the ministry said he was involved in various attacks including Red Fort attack in 2000, Rampur CRPF camp in 2008, Mumbai in 2008, and on a BSF convoy at Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.

The LeT was listed as a terrorist outfit under the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Lakhvi was designated by the United Nations as a global terrorist under the United Nations Security Council Resolution-1267 on December 10, 2008.

The Home Ministry said Dawood runs an international underworld crime syndicate and is involved in perpetrating acts of terror, promoting religious fundamentalism, terror financing, arms smuggling, circulation of counterfeit currency, money laundering, narcotics, extortion and 'benami' real estate business in India and abroad.

He was also involved in assassination attempts on prominent personalities to create social disharmony and terrorise common men.

Dawood was designated as a global terrorist by the UN under the United Nations Security Council Resolution-1267 and was listed in Al-Qaeda sanction list on November 3, 2003. The UNSC had also issued a special notice in his name on April 6, 2006.

Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and Al-Qaeda Sanction Committee of UNSC had listed Dawood for participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of, supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material or otherwise supporting acts or activities of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The Indian Home Ministry also said Dawood executed a series of bomb blasts along with his associates in Mumbai in March 1993, which resulted in deaths of 257 people and injured over 1,000 others apart from destruction of properties on a massive scale.