The National Investigation Agency has named Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, his brothers Abdul Rauf Asghar Alvi and Ammar Alvi, and 16 others in its chargesheet filed in the Pulwama terror attack case on Tuesday. Forty CRPF personnel were killed in the terror attack, which saw India retaliate by striking at the Jaish hideouts in Balakot, Pakistan.
The NIA chargesheet names six Pakistani nationals as the prime accused, supporting India’s claim that the Pulwama terror strike was the handiwork of Pakistan-based terrorists enjoying the support of state actors. Azhar continues to live in a safe house in Pakistan after the Balakot air strike, while his brothers are leading the cross-border terror operations and conducting terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil.
Besides Azhar, 52, and his brothers, Pakistani national Mohammad Ismail, 25, and three deceased Pakistani nationals Muhammad Umar Farooq, 24, Mohammed Kamran Ali, 25, and Qari Yasir have been named as key accused in the chargesheet. Farooq, who was son of the IC814 hijacking accused Ibrahim Athar, had come to India to carry out the strike but got killed in counter-terror operations in March last year.
Farooq and other Pakistani nationals had crossed over into Indian territory and were provided support by over-ground workers in Pulwama, said an NIA official.
The father daughter duo of 53-year-old Peer Tariq Ahmed Shah and Insha Jan, 22, resident of Kakapora in Pulwama were the key logistical support to the Pakistani terrorists and have been named in the chargesheet. Officials said that between 2018 and 2019, the father and daughter have provided support to the terrorists on more than a dozen occasions. “They have been accused of giving shelter and help to IED maker Umar Farooq and local Jaish terrorists from Pulwama like Sameer Ahmed Dar who stayed in their house. Jan has also been accused of staying in touch with Umar on social media platforms as well,” said an NIA official.
The NIA chargesheet also names Adil Ahmed Dar, the suicide bomber from Lethipora, who had rammed the car into the CRPF convoy to execute the terror strike. The chargesheet also names 24-year-old Shakir Bashir from Kakapora; 20-year-old Waiz-ul-Islam from Srinagar; 31-year-old Mohammed Abbas Rather from Kakapora; 28-year-old Bilal Ahmed Kuchhey from Pulwama; 25-year-old Mohammed Iqbal Rather from Charar-e-Shareef, Budgam; 33-year-old Ashaq Ahmed Nengroo from Rajpura in Pulwama and 24-year-old Mudasir Ahmad Khan from Awantipura in Pulwama as the over-ground Jaish cadre in the Valley who hatched the Pulwama plot along with their Pakistani handlers.
Mudasir, along with other JEM leaders, had been killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of Pulwama district on March 10, 2019. Mudasir had been using virtual mobile numbers generated in the US to interact with his handlers in Pakistan.
The NIA has technical and material evidence against the accused and video and audio recordings of Azhar where he is praising the Pulwama attackers. The Telegram and WhatsApp groups and chats are part of the chargesheet along with photographs of the arms, ammunition and vehicle used in the terror strike.
Officials pointed out that 11 of the 19 accused in the Pulwama chargesheet are in their 20s, which shows that Jaish is recruiting young blood and is training the young Jaish cadre in suicide bombing, a terror strategy that used to be the signature of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
