Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed have been designated as terrorists by the Indian government. (File)Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, his deputy Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim on Wednesday became the first individuals to be designated as “terrorist” under the newly amended Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Parliament had passed the UAPA amendment Bill in July this year, empowering the government to designate even individuals as terrorists. The Act earlier had provision to only designate organisations as “terrorist”.
The government had argued that this was in keeping with international norms and laws, and pointed out that even the United Nations designates individuals as terrorists. It said the move would help clamp down on financial resources and assets of individual terrorists even if they disassociate themselves with an organisation, or in cases where they dissolve a banned outfit and float another under a different name and form.
Bid to allay fears of misuse
When the UAPA was amended in July this year to allow the government to designate even individuals, fears were expressed from the Opposition that it would be misused to target people, including civil rights activists. However, with designation of the likes of Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed as terrorists, the government messaging appears to be a move to allay those fears — it is a high bar with which…
