US designates Hizb chief Salahuddin a global terrorist

The United States has declared Syed Salahuddin, chief of Kashmiri militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, as a global terrorist. The announcement came hours before the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump.

The US State Department issued a statement which said that it has termed “Mohammad Yusuf Shah, also known as Syed Salahuddin, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”

India welcomed the announcement. The Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that this “vindicates India’s long-standing position that cross-border terrorism has been behind the long-standing disturbance in Kashmir since last year, and the outfits he leads perpetuates cross-border terrorism against India from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It also underlines quite strongly that both US and India face threat of terrorism, and terrorism knows no boundaries and is a global menace.”

The designation means that the Americans are prohibited from engaging in transactions with Salahuddin and all of Salahuddin’s property and interests in property subject to United States jurisdiction are blocked.

The US State Department said, “Today’s action notifies the US public and the international community that Mohammad Yusuf Shah, aka Syed Salahuddin, has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism. Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system. Moreover, designations can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other nations.”