The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Monday, filed a comprehensive chargesheet before a special court against six people and two terrorist organisations, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its shadow outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF), in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack in April, which claimed the lives of 25 tourists and a local pony operator.
The 1,597-page chargesheet, the result of the eight-month-long "meticulous scientific probe" by the agency, details the deep conspiracy traced back to Pakistan, which the probe agency said has been "unabatedly sponsoring terrorism against India".
The NIA has named LeT, headed by Hafeez Saeed, who has been designated as a global terrorist by the US as well as India, along with TRF, headed by Habibullah Malik alias Sajid Jatt, in the chargesheet for their role in planning, facilitating, and executing the Pahalgam attack.
"Pakistani handler terrorist Sajid Jatt is also named as an accused in the chargesheet, filed before the NIA special court, Jammu," a statement issued by the agency said.
The chargesheet also names the three Pakistani terrorists who carried out the killings at Baisaran meadows in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. All the three were killed by the Army during the Operation Mahadev at Dachigam, located on the outskirts of Srinagar, on July 29, almost 100 days after the deadly terror attack.
The three were identified as Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, the NIA statement said.
The NIA, in the chargesheet, has also invoked the penal section against the accused for waging war against India.
Two accused persons, Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who were arrested on June 22 for harbouring the terrorists, have also been named in the chargesheet by the NIA.
During interrogation, the two men had disclosed the identities of the three armed terrorists involved in the attack, and had also confirmed that they were Pakistani nationals affiliated to the proscribed LeT terror outfit.
—With PTI inputs
