Who is Dr Asif Maqbool Dar, the Saudi Arabia resident declared a terrorist by MHA?

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has designated Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative Dr Asif Maqbool Dar as a ‘terrorist’ under UAPA 1967. A resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Dar is presently based in Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/jhzwi9Q1bs

— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2023

Who is Dr Asif Maqbool Dar?

Born on December 2, 1981, Asif Maqbool Dar currently resides in Dammam, though he originally hails from Bandey Payeen village in Srinagar’s Baramula district, Jammu and Kashmir, according to official records. He apparently moved out of the country several years ago.

A notification issued by the MHA stated that he has been associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen, listed as a terrorist organisation at serial No. 8 of the first schedule of UAPA.

The MHA further accuses Dar of being involved in instigating the youth of Kashmir Valley for terrorist activities by using social media platforms.

According to the notification, Dar is also accused in a case being investigated by the National Investigating Agency in connection with a “conspiracy hatched by the cadre of the terrorist organisation to undertake violent terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir and major cities in India including New Delhi on the direction of handlers based across the border”.

Who else have been designated a terrorist by MHA in the last week?

On January 04, 2023, the MHA declared Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger, alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, one of the chief recruiters of the Islamic State Jammu and Kashmir (ISJK), a designated terrorist.

He is suspected to be based in Afghanistan and wanted in J&K for more than two decades.

The notification issued by the MHA stated, “Aijaz was appointed head of Islamic State (IS) recruitment cell for India and had been instrumental in initiating an online India-centric ISIS propaganda magazine.”

Mohammed Amin Khubaib alias Abu Khubaib was the second person to be declared a terrorist under the UAPA. Khubaib, a resident of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir, is said to be based in Pakistan and acts as the launching commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Khubaib’s name reportedly surfaced after an explosion in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur on March 9 last year that killed one person and injured 16.

When the MHA declared the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), believed to be an affiliate of the Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), as a terrorist organisation under the UAPA on January 07, 2023, the Ministry also designated Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Arbaz Ahmad Mir, who hails from J&K but is based in Pakistan at present, as ‘individual terrorist’.

According to officials, Mir was the main accused in the targeted killing of Rajni Bala, a schoolteacher, in Kulgam in May last year.