Chargesheet Filed Against Indian Student Enrolled In Pakistan, His Father For Terror Activities, Spying

The officials said that this was another example of Pakistan misusing higher studies as bait for recruitment in terror groups.

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Srinagar: The State Investigation Agency (SIA), a unit carved out of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, has filed a chargesheet against three people, including an Indian student enrolled in a Pakistani university and his father, for indulging in terror activities and passing across the border information about army installations.

The chargesheet, officials said, was filed against student Asif Shabir Naik, a resident of Kashtigarh in Doda, his father Shabir Hussain Naik and Safdar Hussain (the latter two currently in Pakistan) under various Sections of the anti-terror law, PTI reported.

The officials said that this was another example of Pakistan misusing higher studies as bait for recruitment in terror groups.

The officials added that 17 youths, who had gone to Pakistan for studies, have already been killed at the Line of Control while infiltrating into Kashmir or during the security forces’ encounters with terror outfits.

The SIA has invoked the legal tool of Letters Rogatory wherein the Pakistani court of law would be approached through the competent Indian court seeking Islamabad’s assistance in providing information about the chargesheeted individuals.

“Even if the prospects of a positive response are bleak, the SIA would not leave a single legal stone unturned,” a senior SIA officer said.

The officials said that Asif Shabir Naik was given a cover as a student of Islamabad’s International Islamic University in a mass communication programme, but he was actually working in the media cell of the banned terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen.

Based on intelligence inputs that he had been visiting Pakistan posing as a student studying there, Naik was intercepted at the Srinagar Airport.

The officials, however, said that he had been visiting terrorist and separatist training facilities.

The officials said this case has shown how the Pakistani agencies have been brazenly and egregiously misusing not only the travel between the two sides based on valid travel documents but also the Indian students going to Pakistan for higher studies.

The officials added the investigations show that the terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen gave the cover of studentship to Naik but used his stay in Pakistan to meet his father, who heads the media wing of the banned terror outfit, besides providing him training in sabotage and subversion.

The statement comes as the forensic examinations of Naik’s phone showed he had video graphed army installations along the Baramula-Srinagar Road.

The officials said that Naik had also photographed the access road to the airport and security features adjacent to it.

They added that Naik was issued a visitor’s visa, but the immigration records indicated he was a student.

The officials said Naik has been arrested in the case and is currently in judicial custody, while the two other accused -- alleged mastermind Shabir Hussain Naik and his associate Safdar Hussain -- are hiding in Pakistan and have been chargesheeted as absconders.

The officials added the probe showed Naik had concealed that his father was in Pakistan and a senior member of the terror group and that he had been falsely mentioned that he was visiting Pakistan to meet a relative by the name of Subhan Bhat, a fictitious character.

The officials further said the probe also showed that Naik had been given secret login credentials to the Kashmir Media Service (KMS), known as the mouthpiece of the United Jihad Council for Kashmir, and its web portal based in Pakistan.