The United States on Thursday backed India's move to declare Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, and two other India's most-wanted men as individual terrorists, and said that the new anti-terror law has expanded possibilities of cooperation between the two countries in fighting terrorism.
"We stand w/ #India and commend it for utilizing 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 #USIndia efforts to combat the scourge of terrorism," tweeted Alice Wells, United States' Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs.
Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Zakir-ur-Rahman Lakhvi are the two others who were declared as individual terrorists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2019.
The said law was passed by the Parliament last month and allows the Centre and states to designate individuals as terrorists and seize their property. Under the earlier law, only orgsations could be declared as terrorist outfits and not individuals.
Saeed's Lashkar-e-Taiba has carried out several terrorist attacks, including the 2000 Red Fort attack, Rampur attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.JeM terrorists attacked the Parliament building and Jammu and Kashmir State Legislative Assembly complex in 2001, killing nine and eight people respectively. Pathankot terror attack in 2016, Pulmawa attack in February this year was also carried by the JeM.
( With inputs from ANI )