SRINAGAR: The Central Government on Monday declared Kashmiri JeM operative and accused in the February 2019 Pulwama attack Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo as a “designated terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
“…it is imperative, in view of the danger which the said Ashiq Nengroo poses to the security of India, and in order to deter him from perpetrating terrorism not limited to India, that he shall be designated as a terrorist under the provisions of the said Act,” a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs reads.
In its chargesheet in the Pulwama attack case, NIA had said that after infiltration, Umer Farooq — key Pakistani planner and attacker in the case — and his associates were received by Pulwama resident Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo who was waiting for them near the river Bein in Jammu. He then transported them to Kashmir in his truck.
According to the government notification, Nengroo, 35, is one of the Commanders of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad which is banned under UAPA.
“Nengroo has been involved in the infiltration of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, who have been responsible for inflicting various terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir …after running a terror syndicate in Kashmir, the said Ashiq Ahmed Nengroo is now engaged in a perilous campaign to orchestrate terror in Jammu and Kashmir, remote-controlled from Pakistan,” the notification said.
His brother Abbass Ahmed Nengroo was an active militant of the JeM and was killed in 2013. In February 2020, after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) summoned Nengroo, he along with his family went missing.
According to the notification, Nengroo had been involved in the cases related to the killing of one police personnel in Pulwama in 2013; the killing of one civilian in 2020 and terror funding and illegal supply of weapons to militants.
In the past couple of weeks the government has notified several notorious terror operatives from Pakistan 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; and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, released in 1999 in exchange of passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight IC-814.
The Centre had amended the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in August 2019, to include the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist. Prior to this amendment, only organizations could be designated as terrorist organizations.
In first orders under the new Act, in September 2019, government had declared LeT’s Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, JeM’s Masood Azhar and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim as terrorists.
Clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of the UAPA empowers the Central Government to notify the name of an individual in the Fourth Schedule to the said Act, if it believes that he is involved in terrorism.
