As part of its ‘Prahaar’ counter-terrorism policy, the Union home ministry recently slapped the ‘terrorist’ tag on 23 more Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK)-based functionaries of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), raising the total number of designated terrorists under Schedule 4 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to 80. Of these, 17 are Pakistani terrorists and six are Indian nationals carrying out terrorist activities from Pakistan and POK.

Designating them as ‘individual terrorists’ under Schedule 4 of the UAPA will enable the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to list a person as terrorist if he is suspected of involvement in terrorism, without requiring him to be affiliated with a terrorist organisation. Inclusion of the names of terrorists in the list will allow the NIA to block their finances, embargo arms sales, and seize their assets. In 2019, the UAPA was amended to include individual terrorists in the list, as previously only groups could be listed as terrorist organisations.

As per dossiers prepared by intelligence agencies, the 23 terrorists were linked to attacks on security forces at Pathankot (2016), Pampore (2016), Nagrota (2016), and Sunjwan (2022), besides terror strikes on mainland India such as Rameshwaram Café (2024) and Mangalore. Some of them were linked to conducting recce of sites like the Ram Mandir complex (Ayodhya) and RSS headquarters (Nagpur).

One of the six Indians, Mohammed Shahid Faisal, alias Zakir Ustad, is a 42-year-old computer science engineering graduate from Bengaluru. He is currently based in Rawalpindi and is affiliated with LeT, al Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He is an online handler of terror incidents in south India recruiting youth via social media. He went missing as a 28-year-old in the wake of an alleged LeT-linked terror plot in 2012.

In a post on X, Union home minister Amit Shah wrote, ‘Pursuing PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji’s vision of zero tolerance against terror, the MHA declared 23 dreaded terror functionaries affiliated with banned organisations as terrorists under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The designated terrorists are involved in anti-India activities, carrying out terror attacks, inciting terror, trafficking arms, infiltrating through the border, facilitating terrorist organisations, raising funds and recruiting terrorists. Out of the 23 terrorists, 17 are Pakistani nationals and 6 are Indian nationals. However, all of them at present operate terrorist activities from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.’ Thirteen of them belong to Lahore-based LeT and the rest to the Bahawalpur-based JeM.

Formally designating these individuals as terrorists will not only help dismantle the terror ecosystem by curbing their financial networks, movements, recruitment capabilities, and terror-linked activities, but will also send a strong message of deterrence against anti-national and terrorist acts. Furthermore, it will enhance the capacity of security and law enforcement agencies to initiate coordinated legal, investigative, and preventive actions at both national and international levels, he said.

Following the amendment to the UAPA 1967 by the central government in 2019, a total of 57 individuals have so far been designated as ‘terrorists’ under Section 35 of the said Act and listed in its Fourth Schedule. The central government has now added 23 more individuals to the list as ‘terrorist’. These designated terrorists are involved in anti-India activities, terrorist attacks, promoting terrorism, arms smuggling, cross-border infiltration, aiding terrorist organisations, fundraising, recruiting terrorists and use of drones to supply arms from across the border.

Recruitment is a critical function for these proscribed organisations with terror operatives using social media platforms to target youth in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the hinterland. While Indian diplomatic efforts have ensured that the US department of state designated LeT’s The Resistance Front (TRF) as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) and global terrorist group on 18 July 2025, the main purpose behind the new list is to deter radicalisation, recruitment and cross border infiltration for terrorist activities in India.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) action came days after 117 eminent citizens of India and Pakistan, including J&K politicians Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, jointly wrote to the prime ministers of both the countries seeking a thaw in hostilities.

In a supplementary chargesheet in the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has named Pakistan-based LeT/ TRF chief and founder Hafiz Saeed. In its supplementary chargesheet filed before the NIA Special Court, Jammu, the anti-terror agency has charged Saeed in his individual capacity and also as the chief of the banned LeT and its active proxy the TRF.

Hafiz has been charged under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and the UAPA 1967. NIA has also invoked the penal section against him for waging war against India and hatching a conspiracy from across the border. The supplementary chargesheet, filed on 6 July 2026, in continuation of the original 1,597-page chargesheet, provides details of Pakistan’s conspiracy, Saeed’s role, and supporting evidence collected by NIA in the case through meticulous scientific investigation and on-ground examination.

In its earlier chargesheet filed on 15 December 2025, NIA had listed Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt as an accused, along with three terrorists killed by security forces during Operation Mahadev in July 2025, as well as two arrested accused. It had also charged the proscribed LeT/ TRF terrorist organisation as a legal entity for its role in planning, facilitating, and executing the Pahalgam terror attack.

The deadly attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025 involved religion-based targeted killings by the Pak-sponsored terrorists. Twenty-five tourists and one local were killed in the attack. First Information Report (FIR) was initially registered by Police Station Pahalgam, district Anantnag. After initial investigation by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the case was transferred to NIA by the MHA.

 

‘NIA continues to probe the case RC-02/2025/NIA/JMU to unravel the complete conspiracy by Pakistan, which has been actively sponsoring terrorism on Indian soil from across the border,’ the anti-terror agency said in a statement.

Hafiz is India’s most-wanted terrorist. He has been behind assaults, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. A dossier on Hafiz, attached with the chargesheet, details his involvement in various other terror attacks in India—the Red Fort attack in 2000 in which three persons, including two soldiers, were killed; the attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rampur in 2008 in which seven security personnel and one civilian were killed; the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 in which 166 people, including foreign nationals, were killed; and the attack on a Border Security Force (BSF) convoy in Udhampur in 2015 in which two security personnel were killed.

‘Hafiz Saeed is accused in various cases registered and being investigated by the NIA, which inter alia include Jammu and Kashmir terror conspiracy and terror funding case and Dukhtaran-e-Millat case, and chargesheet had been filed against him in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. A Red Corner Notice was issued against him on 28 August 2009, for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case and he was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution, 1267, on 10 December 2008,’ the dossier says.

Following the Mumbai terror attack, Hafiz was listed under the ‘United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on al Qaeda and ISIL’. He has also been designated as an international terrorist by the US and the EU.

In its first chargesheet, the NIA identified the three Pakistani terrorists who killed the tourists—Faisal Jatt alias Suleman, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran Bhai, and Hamza Afghani, who was killed during Operation Mahadev in July 2025. It named TRF leader Sajid Saifullah Jatt, aka Langda, and two locals, Bashir Ahmad Jothatd and Parvaiz Ahmad, who were arrested last June.

The first chargesheet said the three terrorists had lunch outside the Baisaran meadow before launching their attack, and indulged in celebratory firing after it. It cited data retrieved from two phones recovered from the terrorists and said chats showed Sajid Jatt giving directions to the terrorists. The chargesheet said screenshots of the Alpine Quest app showed coordinates of locations near Baisaran Park. The NIA said both phones were sold in Pakistan based on data from the Indian arm of the phone manufacturer Xiaomi.

India has handed over to Pakistan material linking the Mumbai terror attack to elements in Pakistan. Pakistan has acknowledged and admitted in the past that the terrorist attack was planned and launched from Pakistan. India and Pakistan do not have an extradition treaty. However, the government of India had sent a letter rogatory to the government of Pakistan for assistance in the investigation into the Mumbai terror attack, including against Hafiz Saeed and his affiliates. There has been no response from Pakistan, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) informed Parliament.

India has consistently called upon Pakistan for an expeditious and successful conclusion of the trial against the accused in Pakistan. It has been conveyed that the conspiracy for the Mumbai terror attack took place in Pakistan and therefore, it is the responsibility of Pakistan to present all necessary evidence to the trial court.

In acknowledgement of the lack of effective action by Pakistan, many countries have called on Pakistan to bring perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack to justice expeditiously. In June 2018, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) notified Pakistan in the ‘Grey List’ due to continuing terror financing related concerns, including with respect to the UN proscribed terrorists and terror entities like LeT, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniyat (FiS).