The US State Department has said that the designation of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin as a “global terrorist” does not reflect a change in the US policy on Kashmir.
“Our policy on Kashmir has not changed,” said a State Department spokesperson when asked if the designation indicated a change in the US policy on Kashmir, which Washington sees as a “disputed territory.”
On June 26, the State Department declared Salahuddin a “specially designated global terrorist”.
The designation order claimed that in September 2016, Salahuddin “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’”.