Syed Salahuddin, the supreme commander terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, has been designated a global terrorist by the US State Department. The development came on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US president Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
It could be noted that Syed Salahuddin is the key mastermind on the attack on Pathankot air base in Punjab in 2016. India has been insisting at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to declare Salahuddin as a global terrorist.
Salahuddin has posed a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism, the US State Department said in a notification.
“Salahuddin vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces,” the US State Department said in a statement.
As a consequence of US State Department’s decision, all properties of Salahuddin subject to America’s jurisdiction and interests in those properties are now blocked.
Born in 1946, Salahuddin is a graduate from the SP College in Srinagar and a Post Graduate in Political Science from the Kashmir University in 1971. He had contested Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in 1987 from Amirakadal constituency on a Muslim United Front ticket but lost.
Originally named as Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, Salahuddin adopted his nom de guerre after the 12th-century sultan of Egypt and Syria when he took over as the chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen in 1991. His poisonous Islamic sermons have attracted several Muslim youths in Kashmir to join terrorism. As the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, Salahuddin is responsible for masterminding several attacks in the Kashmir Valley targeting both the civilians and the security forces.
A prominent figure of Jihadi landscape, 71-year-old Salahuddin is also the head of United Jihad Council, an umbrella organisation of terror outfits – Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Salahuddin is considered be close to LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks.
Salahuddin in a video message has called for a week-long agitation to mark the first death anniversary of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
