Security experts have said that the US government’s decision to designate Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, who is also the head of the United Jihad Council, as a global terrorist has sent a strong message to Pakistan that it cannot continue to extend support to terror groups under the pretext that they are “freedom fighters”. According to officials, following his proclamation as a terrorist, Salahuddin, whose real name is Yousuf Shah, will not be able to do any “transaction” with individuals and entities based in the US. “Now, Salahuddin, in the formal sense, has become a threat to the world and not just to India. We already have an intelligence sharing agreement with the US officials and information related to funding of these terror groups is regularly shared. What this development will do is that it will give the US agencies more power and scope to track Salahuddin, which in turn will benefit us,” said a security official. Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) special director, Rajinder Kumar, who closely followed Pakistan’s ISI, said the designation of Salahuddin as a global terrorist by the US was a big setback for Pakistan.
“By designating him as a global terrorist, America has conveyed that even if Pakistan considers such terrorists as ‘freedom fighters’, America sees them as a terrorist and even if Jammu and Kashmir is considered by Pakistan as a ‘disputed territory’, America does not stand with Pakistan and approves its habit of supporting such ‘freedom fighters’. It clearly shows that America disapproves the actions of Pakistan and the support that it gives to these terror groups on the ground that they are freedom fighters”, Kumar said.
The US State Department designated Salahuddin as a “global terrorist” last week when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the US for an official visit.
Apart from Hizbul, Salahuddin also heads the UJC, a conglomerate of 13 militant groups active in Jammu and Kashmir.
The UJC was formed by the Pakistan army in 1994 and it also includes Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Officials said that apart from a “big diplomatic win” and a snub to Pakistan, the US initiative is unlikely to have any substantial impact on the activities of the terror group in the Kashmir valley.
“There are no practical benefits of designating Salahuddin as a global terrorist as far as the situation in the valley is concerned. It will not deliver any real changes on the ground for the security forces who are engaged in fire fighting with his cadre,” a senior intelligence official said. They based their argument on the fact that LeT chief Hafiz Saeed too was designated as a global terrorist by the US State Department in May 2008 and even though a reward of $10 million was put on his head in April 2012, not much impact was witnessed.
“It has been nearly nine years since he (Hafiz Saeed) has been declared as a global terrorist and it is not that he went underground after that. He is in Pakistan and everyone knows this and the US agencies even know the registration details of the car he travels in and the mobile number that he uses, but that has not stopped him from masterminding terror attacks across India. The funding for LeT is still coming from various countries, which is then transferred to LeT operatives through banks in Pakistan. So I do not feel there is much that will change on the ground for us with regards to Salahuddin,” another official who has been tracking the Pakistan based terror organisations said.
The 71-year-old Salahuddin operates from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, and Pakistani cities such as Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where his Hizbul Mujahiddeen often holds open and well publicised recruitment drives.