The Indian government has designated Hafiz Talha Saeed, son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, as an individual terrorist under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), according to a notification issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Friday night.

 

A notification issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Friday night said that Hafiz Talha Saeed has been actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, planning and executing attacks by LeT in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan. The home ministry said Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit and head of the cleric wing of the LeT.

 

Talha is the 32nd terrorist who has been designated by the Indian government as an “individual terrorist”. His father Hafiz Saeed, JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and several others are already on the list.

 

It further stated that Talha Saeed has been “actively visiting various LeT centres across Pakistan and during his sermons propagating for jihad against India, Israel, United States of America and Indian interests in other western countries.”

 

His designation as an individual terrorist comes on the day his father was sentenced by a Pakistan court for 32 years in two terror financing cases.

 

Pertinent to mention here that his father Hafiz Mohd. Saeed is the mastermind of Mumbai terrorist attack (November 2008) in which more than 170 people were killed by the terrorists . Saeed, on whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty, was arrested in July 2019 in the terror financing cases. He is the head of JuD, which is the front organisation for the LeT. The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.