The United States has designated the Pakistani Hizbul Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based group, as a foreign terrorist organisation, bringing it into a network of sanctions that freezes any assets it holds in the US.
The move will be particularly welcome in India, where Hizbul Mujahideen — or “Group of Holy Warriors” — has perpetrated militant attacks in Kashmir for nearly three decades, aiming to overthrow Indian rule in the region.
The group is thought to be behind a spree of violence in Kashmir over the past year, after one of its most popular commanders, Burhan Wani, was killed by Indian security forces in July 2016.
Amid more widespread protests by civilians, Hizbul Mujahideen is thought to have carried out specific targeted attacks. Most recently, seven Hindu pilgrims were killed in July when they were caught in crossfire between militants and Indian troops. The very next day security forces carried out an operation against Hizbul Mujahideen in the village of Budgam during which three militants were killed, although Indian officials never confirmed their affiliation.
Pakistan called the American decision “saddening”.
"Declaring organisations or groups supporting the freedom struggle in Kashmir as terrorist outfits is completely unjustified," foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.
The US move, announced on Wednesday, comes less than two months after it placed the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin, on its list of designated global terrorists.
Salahuddin, 71, was in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir at the time.
“We will not end this fight without liberating Kashmir from India,” he said.
The blacklisting of Salahaddin was announced just hours before Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met president Donald Trump for the first time in Washington. The latest decision came two days after the leaders spoke on the phone, when Mr Trump called Mr Modi to greet him on the 70th anniversary of India’s independence.
The US state department said its designation of Hizbul Mujahideen as a terrorist organisation was to deny it “the resources it needs to carry out terrorist attacks. Among other consequences, all of [the group’s] property and interests in property subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the group”.
India has pressed the US to blacklist Hizbul Mujahideen throughout Mr Modi's three-year tenure as prime minister, and has shared documents and evidence collected by security agencies and the police in Kashmir with the US state department.
The group has claimed numerous attacks over the years in Kashmir. Among the deadliest was when a landmine blew up a convoy of Indian troops in 2004. The convoy included a bus in which soldiers and their family members were travelling from Srinagar to Jammu on vacation. Seventeen soldiers, as well as three women, four children and two other civilians were killed in that attack.
The issue acquired further urgency as unrest spiralled in Kashmir after the death of Wani.
A curfew imposed last summer in the Kashmir valley lasted nearly two months and there have been other periods of curfew since then. Clashes between troops and protesters have been bloody, with more than 100 deaths and thousands injured.
The region continues to be volatile. On Sunday, two Indian soldiers and three civilians died in a firefight after troops encircled a group of suspected militants in a village near Srinagar.
Hizbul Mujahideen joins two other Pakistan-based groups on the US list. Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba were placed on the list on December 26, 2001, barely two weeks after a squad of terrorists from these groups attacked India’s parliament.
