Three years later, the Ministry of Home Affairs also designated the Hizb Chief as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. (File photo)
A special court in Kashmir has issued a non-bailable warrant against Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen supremo Mohammad Yousuf Shah, popularly known as Syed Salah-ud-din, in a terror-related case registered by the police in 2012.
“Shadow of CD (case diary) was also called and perused, and its the suggests that the Investigating Officer has collected sufficient evidence which prima facie connects the accused Shah for the commission of crime under Sections 13, 18, 20, 39 of UAP Act and 506 of RPC,” the Special Judge (NIA) Budgam Yahaya Firdous said while issuing the non-bailable warrant.
“As per the statement made by the IO, the original CD has been sent to the Competent Authority for the accord of sanction so that the chargesheet is produced in the Competent Court for trial in absentia,” the judge said.
The judge said that the court is satisfied that the Hizb chief is “evading arrest” in the case. “As such, a non-bailable warrant is issued against the accused with the direction to the police of Jammu and Kashmir to arrest him,” the court ordered.
Salah-ud-din, who contested the 1987 assembly elections in the Valley, exfiltrated to Pakistan in 1990 when the militancy erupted in Kashmir. He soon became the chief of the then-largest militant organisation, Hizbul Mujahideen. He was also made the chairman of the United Jihad Council, an amalgam of militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2017, the United States designated him as a global terrorist. Three years later, the Ministry of Home Affairs also designated the Hizb Chief as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has already terminated Salah ud din’s three sons – Shahid Yousuf, Shakeel Yousuf and Mueed Yousuf – from government services under section 311(2)(C), which allows the government to terminate an employee without an inquiry or an opportunity to explain their position. Two of them, Shahid and Shakee, have been arrested by the National Investigation Agency in a terror funding-related case.