NIA detains juvenile in Dhangri terror attack case

Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has detained a juvenile for allegedly harboring terrorists involved in the killing of five civilians in Dhangri village of border Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir last year.

A spokesperson of the NIA said the juvenile/child in conflict with law (CCL) was incidentally lodged at Observation Home, R S Pura, Jammu in another case, registered at Police Station Gursai in neighboring Poonch district.

The juvenile was taken into custody on Saturday by the NIA and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Rajouri, for remand.

The Dhangri terror attack took place on January 1, 2023, in which five people belonging to the Hindu community were killed and several others seriously injured. The case was initially registered as FIR no. 01/2023 at PS Rajouri and after the NIA took over they re-registered the case on January 13, 2023.

The investigations by the NIA had revealed that the apprehended juvenile, along with two other earlier arrested persons namely Nisar Ahmed alias Haji Nisar and Mushtaq Hussain alias Chacha, was involved in harboring the terrorists who had carried out the horrendous attack.

Nisar Ahmed and Mushtaq Hussain were arrested by the NIA on August 31, 2023 and are presently lodged at Central Jail, Kot Bhalwal, Jammu.

The duo had provided logistic support to the terrorists for more than two months and had sheltered them in a hideout which they had constructed on the directions of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) handlers, namely Saifullah alias Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi and Mohammad Qasim, the NIA investigation reveals.

A team of NIA officials had regularly camped in the hilly terrain of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts of Jammu and Kashmir in search of actual perpetrators of the offence during the course of investigations.

“The team examined a large number of suspicious entities and later zeroed in on the above-mentioned accused persons who had provided logistic support to the terrorists,” the agency said.