NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday designated a Kashmiri terrorist responsible for the 2018 killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari as a terrorist.
Sheikh Sajad alias Sajjad Gul, 47, was designated a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the Ministry of Home Affairs through a gazette notification.
A resident of Srinagar, Sajad is one of the commanders and associate members of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and is currently absconding, the notification said.
“Sajad has been actively radicalizing, motivating and recruiting youth of Jammu and Kashmir to support proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba and has been involved in terror funding. …Sajad was found involved in hatching criminal conspiracy, in connivance with terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, in eliminating a prominent journalist, along with his two personal security officers on the 14th June, 2018 at the busy Press Enclave area of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir,” the notification said.
According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, Bukhari’s killing was planned by Sajad from Pakistan on instructions of his LeT bosses.
In the past couple of weeks, the government has notified several terror operatives from Pakistan or suspected to be in that country as terrorists. These include LeT chief Hafiz Saeed’s son Talha; JeM chief Masood Azhar’s brother and Pulwama attack accused Ammar Alvi; Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Ali Kashif Jaan, the handler of 2016 Pathankot Air Base attackers; Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, the Kashmiri terrorist released in 1999 in exchange of passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814; and Pulwama attack courier Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo.
The Centre had amended the UAPA, 1967 in August 2019, to include the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist. Prior to this amendment, only organisations could be designated as terrorist organisations.
In first orders under the new Act, the government in September 2019 had declared LeT’s Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, JeM’s Masood Azhar and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim as terrorists.
Designation as a terrorist helps the government freeze finances and crack down on networks created by the individual terrorists.
