Jaish chief Masood Pulwama was on the verge of another attack: NIA

New delhi date. Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The NIA on Tuesday filed a 13,500-page chargesheet against 19 terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, in a special court for plotting a suicide attack on 40 CRPF personnel in south Kashmir on February 14 last year.

In the indictment, the NIA claimed that Jaish chief Masood was planning to carry out another suicide attack. Reiki was also done for him.

The chargesheet filed in the Jammu NIA court includes the names of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Raees Asghar and several other commanders of the terror outfit. NIA lawyer Vipin Kalra said after filing the chargesheet in court that Masood Azhar was the main accused in the case. The next hearing in the case is set for September 1.

Masood Azhar was also assisted by Pakistan's spy agency ISI, NIA prosecutors said. Evidence was also presented before the court to substantiate these allegations. The technique adopted in the attack, the materials and the evidence gathered from the scene of the incident prove that Pakistan had a hand in it.

Records of arrests made in connection with the investigation, their interrogation, social media chats, calls, etc. were also produced before the court. All this proves that a conspiracy was hatched to attack the convoy of paramilitary forces. Some of the terrorists involved in the attack were shot dead by security forces in various encounters in 2019.

The NIA probe reveals that Pakistan used Adil Ahmed Dar, a native of Kashmir. He was the one who hit the CRPF convoy with the car loaded with explosives in Pulwama. The chargesheet states that the terrorists had earlier planned to carry out a suicide attack on February 6, 2019.

160 kg of explosives were also placed in one car and 40 kg of explosives in the other car for the attack, but the attack was postponed for a few days as snow started falling in Kashmir at that time. Seven of the 19 terrorists named in the chargesheet have been arrested.

Among the Jaish-e-Mohammed comrades captured from Kashmir since February were Shakir Bashir Magare, Mohammad Abbas Rather, Mohammad Iqbal Rather, Wise-ul-Islam, Insha Jaan, Tarikh Ahmed Shah and Bilal Ahmed Kuchi. The NIA chargesheet claims that the plot was hatched in Pakistan. At the same time, the terrorists were trained in Pakistan.

In a video message after the killing of his nephew Usman Haider in Tral in 2018, Masood Azhar called on Kashmiris to come forward for martyrdom in retaliation, NIA sources said. This video message is included in the chargesheet. The NIA claimed that Jaish had also hatched a conspiracy to carry out another attack after the Pulwama attack.

According to the chargesheet, following international pressure and the Balakot air strike on Jaish by the Indian Air Force, Azar Mahmood asked Umar Farooq to postpone the second attack. Umar Farooq was the son of IC-bomber Ibrahim Athar. Ibrahim Athar was shot dead just a month and a half after the Pulwama attack.

The attackers reached Kashmir in a truck from Samba

Kashmir, Ta. 25

An overground worker named Mohammad Iqbal Rather, Bilal Ahmed Kooch bought a mobile phone for the attack. Apart from this, the accused Mohammad Iqbal Rather was part of Jaish's transportation module. He had gone to Samba in a truck, from where Umar Farooq and his companions were taken to Kashmir in this truck. Omar Farooq was trained in Afghanistan in 2016 and 2017 and then infiltrated India in 2018. He has since been preparing to raise resources for a terrorist attack. The chargesheet said the accused in the Pulwama attack were given orders directly from Pakistan from Jaish chief Masood Azhar and Rauf Asghar.