Washington: The United States has backed India’s move to declare four notorious criminals, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, as terrorists individually under a new anti-terror law, expanding possibilities of cooperation between the two countries to combat the scourge of terrorism.
India declared Mumbai terror attack accused Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, as individual terrorists by the government under a new anti-terror law, Wednesday.
“We stand w/ #India & commend it for utilising new legal authorities to designate 4 notorious terrorists: Maulana Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi & Dawood Ibrahim. This new law expands possibilities for joint #US-India efforts to combat scourge of terrorism,” the Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Alice G Wells, tweeted Thursday.
The decisions to declare all four of them as terrorist have been taken nearly a month after Parliament approved a crucial amendment to The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Act, 1967.
The four are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, an official at the Ministry of Home Affairs said in New Delhi. These four are involved in terrorist attacks in India and have been designated as global terrorists under United Nations.
The US Department of the Treasury has designated Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind, as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information to bring the JuD chief to justice.
PTI