An NIA special court in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district on Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant against Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Mohammad Yousuf Shah , popularly known as Syed Salah-ud-din who has been stated as ‘evading arrest’. The Court directed the police to arrest him in a terror-related case registered by the police in 2012.
The Court of Special Judge designated under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act issued the direction after hearing a case registered under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and Section 506 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) — specific criminal law for Jammu and Kashmir until 2019, analogous to the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court said the investigating officer has collected sufficient evidence which prima facie implicates Shah in various offences under sections 13, 18, 20, and 39 of the UAPA, pertaining to threat to sovereignty, terror conspiracy, and involvement in terrorist activities.
The accused has been evading arrest, the court held, thus issuing a non-bailable warrant against Shah and directing the Jammu and Kashmir Police to arrest him in connection with the FIR.
Section 73 CrPC empowers the magistrate to issue a warrant against any person accused of non-bailable offence and evading arrest, it said.As per the statement made by the IO, the original CD has been sent to the Competent Authority for the accord of sanction so that the chargesheet is produced in the Competent Court for trial in absentia,” the judge said.The judge said that the court is satisfied that the Hizb chief is “evading arrest” in the case. “As such, a non-bailable warrant is issued against the accused with the direction to the police of Jammu and Kashmir to arrest him,” the court ordered.
Shah fled to Pakistan in 1993 and was designated as a terrorist by the government in 2020. He is currently operating from Pakistan, and is also the chief of United Jihad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of several terror outfits. Salah-ud-din, who contested the 1987 assembly elections in the Valley, exfiltrated to Pakistan in 1990 when the militancy erupted in Kashmir.
The NIA attached properties linked to Shah and his two sons in 2023. His sons – Shahid Yousuf, Shakeel Yousuf and Mueed Yousuf have already been sacked from government services under section 311(2)(C), which allows the government to terminate an employee without an inquiry or an opportunity to explain their position.
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