US: Hizb chief is a global terrorist

New Delhi : The US tonight declared Syed Salahuddin, the chief of Kashmiri militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, as a “global terrorist”, dealing a major blow to Pakistan just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with President Donald Trump. In a notification, the State Department said Salahuddin, who hails from Kashmir and is based in Pakistan for the last 28 years, “has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.” The US took the step against the militant group’s head, whose original name is Mohammed Yusuf Shah, as he had “vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into a graveyard for Indian forces”. India welcomed the US’ move and said it vindicated its long-standing position that cross-border terrorism had been behind the disturbances in Kashmir since last year. “It underlines quiet strongly the fact that both India and the US face threat of terrorism and they are working together to counter it, not in one particular area, but globally as terrorism knows no boundaries,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said here.