MHA designates AlUmar-Mujahideen founder Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, released after 1999 Indian Airlines flight hijack, as terrorist

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification mentioning that Zargar is a `threat to peace, not only to India but across the world, with his contacts and proximity to radical terrorist groups like the AlQaeda and Jaish-Mohammed`.

New Delhi: India has notified Pakistan-based AlUmar-Mujahideen founder Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, one of the released terrorists in the 1999 Indian Airlines Flight (IC-814) hijacking crisis in exchange for the hostages, as a ''terrorist.''

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) made the announcement through a gazette notification issued on Wednesday, mentioning that Zargar is a "threat to peace, not only to India but across the world, with his contacts and proximity to radical terrorist groups like the AlQaeda and Jaish-Mohammed".

The Ministry designated Zargar as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. In the notification, the MHA pointed out that Zargar had been affiliated with the `Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front` terror outfit and had gone to Pakistan for obtaining illegal arms and ammunition training.

Zargar alias Latram, 52, a resident of Gani Mohalla in Jammu and Kashmir`s Srinagar, has been running an incessant campaign from Pakistan to fuel terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, reads the notification.

"Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar was one of the released terrorists in the year 1999, Indian Airlines Flight hijacking crisis, in exchange of the hostages of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814. He has been involved in various terror crimes including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, planning and execution of terrorist attacks and terror funding."

Noting that "Zargar is a threat to peace", the notification mentions, that the Central Government believes that Zargar is involved in terrorism and he is to be notified as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967)".

The notification mentions that Zargar`s terrorist outfit Al-Umar-Mujahideen is also listed as a terrorist organisation under the First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The MHA notification later reads "now, therefore, in the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the Central Government hereby makes the following amendment in the Fourth Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967" to notify Zargar as a terrorist.