MHA declares Kashmir-born Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger as ‘individual terrorist’

SRINAGAR — The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday declared a Kashmir-born ‘terrorist’, Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, currently based in Afghanistan as an “individual terrorist”.

A notification issued by the Union Home Ministry, a copy of which lies with the news agency KNO, states that Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, currently based in Afghanistan, one of the chief recruiters of Islamic State J&K (ISJK), has been designated as the ‘individual terrorist’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Ahanger, who was born in Srinagar in 1974, is a wanted ‘terrorist’ in Jammu and Kashmir for more than two decades and ‘has started planning terror-related strategies in Jammu and Kashmir by building coordination channels between various terrorist groups. He has contacts with al-Qaeda and other global terrorist groups and is engaged in restarting the Islamic State (IS) in India’.

“Ahanger is working towards providing traction to militancy in Kashmir and has started the process of identifying people for inclusion in his Kashmir-based network,” the MHA said, adding that he was appointed as the head of Islamic State (IS) recruitment cell for India and had been instrumental in initiating an online India-centric ISIS propaganda magazine.

The MHA further said that ‘with his inclusion in the Fourth Schedule under the UAPA, 1967, Ahanger will be the 49th individual designated as a terrorist’.