The United States has said the move has extended opportunities for collaboration between the two nations to fight terrorism in supporting India and declare Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and three other individual terrorists under the new anti-terrorism legislation.
We stand with India and commend the use by new jurisdictions for the designation of four notorious terrorist entities: Mulana Masood, Saeed Hafiz, Lakhvi Zaki-ur-Rehman and Ibrahim Dawood. Alice Wells, acting assisting secretary for South and Central Asia, has tweeted this new law extending chances of joint United States-India attempts to tackle the terror scourge.
On Wednesday, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Kashmir Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi Supreme Operation Commander of LeT and the fleeting sub-world, Don Dawood Ibrahim, were identified as terrorists by a government notification under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
These four have participated in terrorist attacks in India and have been identified as United Nations worldwide terrorists.
Decisions were taken almost a month after a major amendment to the 1967 Law of Illegal Activities (Prevention) Amendments was authorized by parliament.
The amendment to the UAPA enables the Indian government to nominate people for terrorist purposes, which complies with US legislation that opens an additional path to joint action against terrorists.
Prior to the amendment, the designation of terrorism by India could only be accorded to organizations and not people.
The Department of State has the right to appoint organizations as terrorist organisations, under the US Law of Immigration and Nationality.
Both people and organizations may be included in a list of “Specially designated and blocked people,” including terrorists, narcotics traffickers, and others who are opposed to foreign policy and national security objectives.
