Indian-origin 'New Jihadi John': All you need to know

The US on Tuesday placed Indian-origin Islamic State terrorist from Britain Siddhartha Dhar on its global terrorism list, a designation that allows the government to impose sanctions and freeze assets and property owned by him. Here's all you need to know about the man dubbed as the "New Jihadi John".
* Siddhartha Dhar is a British Hindu who converted to Islam and now goes by the name Abu Rumaysah.
* He was a leading member of now-defunct British terrorist organization Al-Muhajiroun.
* In 2014, he skipped police bail in the UK and traveled to Syria with his wife and young children to join ISIS.
* Dhar became a senior commander of the dreaded outfit and is believed to have replaced ISIS executioner Mohammad Emwazi after the latter was killed in a drone strike in 2015. This earned Dhar the monicker "New Jihadi John".
* The US State Department said it suspected Dhar to be the masked leader in a January 2016 ISIS video showing the execution of several prisoners who were accused by the terror outfit of spying for the UK.
* Nihad Barakat, a Yazidi teenager held as a sex slave by ISIS, was quoted as saying by the Independent in May 2016 that she was kidnapped and trafficked by Dhar, who was based in Mosul, the group's former stronghold in Iraq.
* The US State Department on Tuesday placed Siddhartha Dhar, along with Belgian-Moroccan citizen Abdelatif Gaini, on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists and imposed sanctions on them.
* This action notifies the US public and the international community that Dhar and Gaini have committed or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.
* The designation seeks to deny Dhar and Gaini the resources they need to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks.
* Furthermore, all property and interests in property (subject to US jurisdiction) owned by these terror suspects are frozen, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.
(With inputs from PTI)