• The government designated Pakistani national Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

• Alamgir was involved in the terror attack on a CRPF bus in Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir in 2019, the MHA notification said.

• Forty CRPF personnel were killed in the February 14, 2019 attack. About a fortnight later, India had carried out an air strike on terrorist camps inside Pakistan in response.

• Alamgir is the 33rd individual who has been declared a terrorist by the government under the UAPA.

• Last week, the government had designated Hafiz Talha Saeed, a key leader of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the son of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed, a terrorist.

What is the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act?

• Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an anti-terror law aimed at the effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective is to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India.

• It was passed in 1967 under the Congress government led by PM Indira Gandhi. Later, amendments were brought in under the UPA governments in 2004, 2008 and 2013.

• In August 2019, the President gave approval to The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019. 

• The amended Act included provision of designating an individual as a terrorist. Prior to this amendment, only organisations could be designated as terrorist organisations.

• The amendment gave powers to the director general of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to attach properties acquired from proceeds of terrorism. Earlier, the law required that the NIA take prior permission from the respective state police chief to attach the proceeds of terrorism. 

• Also, the International Convention for Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005) has been added in the Second Schedule through the amendment.

Who is Alamgir?

• Born on January 1, 1983 and a resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab, Alamgir is a senior leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

• The JeM has been responsible for a series of deadly attacks in India, mostly in Jammu & Kashmir, in which scores of civilians and security personnel have been killed over the years.

• The JeM is listed as a terrorist organisation under the First Schedule of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA.

• In a notification, the Union home ministry said Alamgir, 39, who used aliases Maktab Ameer, Mujahid Bhai and Muhammad Bhai, has been involved in the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama.

• He has been involved in anti-India terror activities on behalf of the JeM and looks after the outfit’s fund collection activities from Pakistani nationals and routing the fund to Kashmir.

• Alamgir has been involved in facilitating infiltration of Afghan cadres and coordinating terror attacks on Indian security forces in Jammu & Kashmir.

• The ministry said taking into account all his activities, Alamgir has been notified as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

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