NIA files charge sheet against 19 people in Pulwama suicide attack case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed a charge sheet in February 14, 2019 Pulwama suicide attack case against 19 accused, including Pakistan-based chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit Masood Azhar and his relatives.

Among the 19 accused, seven are arrested, while seven others are deceased terrorists and five are absconding. The 13,800-page charge sheet was filed before a special NIA court in Jammu. Besides Masood Azhar, his brothers Abdul Rauf Asghar and Ammar Alvi, and nephew Umar Farooq are among those named in the charge sheet by the probe agency.

Farooq, the son of IC-814 hijacking accused Ibrahim Athar, who was in India to execute the deadly Pulwama attack, was killed in March 2019 in an encounter by security forces. The charge sheet details how the planning and execution of one of the deadliest terror attacks, in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred, was executed from Pakistan.

A spokesperson of the NIA said the investigation revealed that Pulwama attack was a result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based leadership of the Jaish.

“The investigation has revealed that Masood Azhar, Rauf Asgar and Ammar Alvi Masood were continuously giving directions and guidance to the Pakistani Jaish terrorists, (who had infiltrated into India) both before and after the attack,” he said.

According to the investigations, the Jaish had also planned to carry out another suicide attack which got averted due to Balakot air strikes, killing of main conspirator Umar Farooq and international pressure on Pakistan.

The NIA charge sheet also includes digital, forensic, documentary and oral evidence, establishing a ‘foolproof’ case against the accused. “The charge sheet has brought on record the all-out involvement of Pakistan-based entities to carry out terrorist strikes in India and to incite and provoke Kashmiri youth,” it added.

The NIA probe has also revealed that Pakistan used Adil Ahmad Dar, a local militant who rammed an explosive-laden car into a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, as a suicide bomber to project the attack as a result of a home-grown militancy.

40 CRPF personnel, travelling in a convoy on south Kashmir highway in Pulwama district, were martyred on February 14, 2019 when suicide-bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed a car loaded with explosives into the paramilitary bus at around 3.15 pm at Lethpora. The impact of the blast reduced the bus to a mangled heap.

The ruthless nature of the attack and the stark casualty count had stirred mass outrage within India and just 12 days after the attack, Narendra Modi-led NDA government sanctioned a surgical airstrike on a JeM camp in Balakot area of Pakistan.