The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two persons for allegedly harbouring militants who had killed seven innocent civilians at Dhangri in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on January 1.
“The two accused, Nisar Ahmed Haji Nisar and Mushtaq Hussain, were formally arrested on Thursday in the case RC-01/2023/NIA/JMU,” the agency said.
They were produced before a Special NIA Court in Jammu on Friday which sent them to 12 days of NIA custody. The duo were currently lodged in Central Jail, Kot Bhalwal, Jammu in another case registered at Gursai Police Station in Poonch district.
“Investigations by the NIA revealed that both the arrested accused persons were involved in harbouring the terrorists who had carried out the shocking killings of the civilians,” the NIA said in a statement.
“They had provided logistics support to the terrorists for more than two months and had sheltered them in a hideout, which was constructed by the arrested accused persons on the directions of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiyaba (LeT) handlers namely Saifullah, Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal, Qatal Sindhi and Mohd. Qasim," it said.
The statement further said that during the investigations, a team of NIA officials spent time in the hilly terrain of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts of Jammu ad Kashmir, examining several suspicious entities and zeroed in on the two accused who had provided the hideout.
Five persons were killed as terrorists terrorists fired indiscriminately on members of the minority community while two other persons lost their lives when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which was left behind by the terrorists before fleeing the village, exploded in Rajouri on January 1.
Two minors were among those killed while more than a dozen people were injured.
Home Minister Amit Shah visited Rajouri after the attack and ordered security forces to trace those involved in the killings. The case was taken over by the NIA on January 13.