Centre designates 23 more terrorists under UAPA; Pakistan-based operatives accused of plotting attacks in Jammu and Punjab

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday designated 23 additional individuals as “individual terrorists” under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, further strengthening the Centre’s stated policy of maintaining zero tolerance towards terrorism. With the latest notifications, the total number of individuals listed in the Fourth Schedule of the Act has risen to 80.

The MHA issued 23 separate notifications under Section 35 of the UAPA, which empowers the Central Government to classify a person as an individual terrorist if credible evidence establishes their involvement in terrorist-related activities.

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According to the notifications, most of the newly designated individuals are currently based in Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), where they are allegedly involved in planning and coordinating anti-India operations. Several of them are reported to have originated from Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India before relocating across the border. The government said they are associated with banned terrorist organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and The Resistance Front (TRF), while one individual has also been linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS modules.

The ministry stated that the accused were allegedly engaged in a wide range of terrorist activities beyond direct involvement in attacks. These include facilitating cross-border infiltration, recruiting and training militants, arranging weapons and ammunition, including through drone-based supply networks, financing terrorist operations, spreading extremist propaganda through social media, and planning attacks inside India. The notifications further alleged that some of them helped operatives obtain forged identities, trained recruits in the use of encrypted communication platforms, and imparted methods to evade security agencies.

The MHA also highlighted the alleged involvement of several senior Jaish-e-Mohammed operatives in major terror incidents. Masood Ilyas Kashmiri and Mohammad Mussadiq have been accused of links to the April 2022 terrorist attack on security personnel in Sunjwan, Jammu. Similarly, Mufti Mohammad Asgar Khan, Hafiz Abdul Shakoor and Abdullah Jehad have been named for their alleged roles in the November 2016 attack on the Army camp in Nagrota, Jammu.

Among those designated as individual terrorists are Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, Mohammad Mussadiq, Mufti Mohammad Asgar Khan, Hafiz Abdul Shakoor, Abdullah Jehad, Firdous Ahmed Bhat, Ghulam Farid, Bilal Ahmed Mir, Abid Qayyum Lone, Nazir Ahmed Gujjar, Abdul Rauf, Maulana Saifullah Khalid, Mohammad Yaqoob, Maulana Yusuf Taibi, Owais Farooz, Qari Yaqoob Sheikh, Waseem Noor Jat and Mohammad Shahid Faisal, along with several others.