Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin admits to sponsoring attacks on India
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin has admitted carrying out attacks in India through his terror outfit to a Pakistani TV channel. His statement comes a week after the US designated him a 'global terrorist' during Indian PM Narendra Modi's visit to Washington. Salahuddin's statement raises questions about the Pakistani government, which had called the US' decision "completely unjustified."
US designates Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin as a 'global-terrorist'
On June 27, ahead of Modi's meeting with Trump, the US named Hizbul Mujahideen Chief, Syed Salahuddin as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist', tacitly justifying India's position that cross-border terrorism has been fuelling violence in Kashmir. "It underlines strongly the fact that both India and the US face the threat of terrorism and are working together to counter this threat", India's MEA had said.
What did the state department notification say?
The State Department designation prohibits Americans from engaging in all transactions with Salahuddin and blocks all his property falling under US jurisdiction. Echoing India's views, it recognized that Hizbul Mujahideen under Salahuddin has orchestrated several attacks including the 2014 Kashmir explosion. He has further threatened to train several suicide bombers and has vowed to turn Kashmir into "a graveyard of Indian soldiers", it adds.
Who is Syed Salahuddin?
Salahuddin has been arming and training youth since the early 80s fuelling anti-India militancy in Kashmir. He also heads the United Jihadi Council, an umbrella body of terrorist groups in Kashmir set up in the 90s. He has blatantly been against India-Pakistan dialogue on the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue and claims responsibility for the 2014 explosion which claimed 17 lives in Kashmir.
What Salahuddin said
"Till now our focus was on Indian occupation forces. All the operations that we have done or are underway, we focus only on the installations of these occupational forces," Salahuddin said during an interview with Geo TV. On July 1, he said during a rally in Muzaffarabad that his "fighters' attacks were on legitimate military targets as opposed to civilians."
