New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday attached the property of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Basit Ahmad Reshi in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). He was declared a terrorist under the UAPA through a notification issued by the Centre in October last year.
Based in Pakistan, Reshi was involved in several terror crimes including terror financing in Kashmir from across the border, news agency PTI reported officials as saying.
According to news agency ANI, Reshi had executed an attack on a police guard post in the Tujar Sharief area on August 18, 2015, in which a cop and a civilian were killed.
"This is to inform all the members of the public that Immovable Property-Agriculture land measuring 4.75 marlas falling under Khasra no. 1962 (Min) situated at Edipora, Tehsil Zaingeer, District Baramulla, J&K . under the ownership of Basit Ahmad Reshi, a 'designated individual terrorist' under the UA(P)A, stands attached by the Order of Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India dated 13.02.2023," a notification, shared by ANI, reads.
This comes after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday attached property of terrorist Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, who along with two other militants was released in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999.
Zargar alias 'Latram' was wanted in several terror-related cases, including the kidnapping of daughter of the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in 1989.
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According to PTI, an NIA spokesperson termed it as a "major offensive" against terrorists operating from Pakistan. He said that Zargar's two marlas (544 sq feet) house (Khasra No. 182) at Ganai Mohalla, Jamia Masjid, Nowhatta, Srinagar, were attached under the provisions of stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
"The procedure was carried out today by a team of the NIA along with the representative of district administration and local police. Zargar is a 'Designated Individual Terrorist' under the UAPA and has been operating from Pakistan ever since his release and funding terror activities in the valley," the spokesperson said, as quoted by PTI.
The NIA team pasted the notice of attachment on his house in presence of the sisters of the absconding terrorist.
Zargar, after breaking ranks with banned JKLF terror group in late 1990, had formed Al-Umar Mujahideen terror group that was responsible for several barbaric killings in downtown Srinagar.
Hailing from the downtown city and a coppersmith by profession before joining terror ranks, Zargar was arrested in 1992. His name was found in the list of terrorists to be exchanged for passengers of 1999 IC-814 hijacking of Indian Airlines plane and he was subsequently released and taken by the then External Affairs Minister of BJP-led government Jaswant Singh to Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 31, 1999.
Besides Zargar, whose name, according to security experts, was included by perpetrators sitting in Pakistan only to project the hijacking as an indigenous act of Kashmiri terrorists.
The others released included Masood Azhar, one of the founders of Harkat-ul-Ansar terror group and now heading banned Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, and Sheikh Omar, a highly radicalised terrorist who is at present on a death row in Pakistan for killing American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Zargar, after being exchanged at Kandahar airport, shifted his base to Pakistan occupied Kashmir's Muzaffarabad town from where he attempted to revive Al-Umar Mujahideen.
He has also been involved in other heinous crimes, including murders, and has close association with other terror outfits such as Al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Zargar was designated as a terrorist under the UAPA in April last year, a move which enabled the security agencies to attach his property.