NIA Files Chargesheet Against JeM Chief Masood Azhar, 11 Others In Terror Attack Case Before PM Modi's J&K Visit

The accused south Kashmir residents entered into a criminal conspiracy with JeM leadership after which they received, transported and provided logistic support to freshly infiltrated JeM terrorists.

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a chargesheet against 12 accused, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar Alvi, in a case related to terror attack ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir’s Samba in April, news agency PTI reported.

According to the report, the NIA filed the chargesheet against Masood Azhar, his four Pakistan-based associates, two slain militants and five Kashmir residents in a special court on Wednesday.   

“The chargesheet was filed against 12 accused in the case relating to the conspiracy hatched among Kashmir based terrorist operatives, Pakistan based handlers and terrorists of proscribed terrorist outfit JeM, in furtherance to which, two JeM terrorists were infiltrated into India through a (cross-border) tunnel,” PTI quoted the NIA spokesperson as saying.  

The spokesperson said that the case was initially registered on April 22 at Bahu Fort police station in Jammu and re-registered by the NIA on April 26.

As per the NIA, apart from Azhar, others chargesheeted in the case include Pakistani militants Rouf Asgar Alvi alias ‘Abdul Rouf Asgar’ of Bahawalpur, Mohammad Mussdaiq alias ‘Doctor’ alias ‘Abdul Manan’ alias ‘Wahid Khan’ of Sailkot, Shahid Latif alias ‘Chotta Shahid’ alias ‘Noor Al Din’ of Gujranwala-Punjab, Masood Ilyas Kashmiri alias ‘Abu Mohammad’ of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Shafeeq Ahmad Sheikh, Abid Mushtaq Mir and Asif Ahmad Sheikh, all of them residents of Pulwama, and Bilal Ahmad Wagay and Mohd Ishaq Chopan of Anantnag, apart from the two slain militants were also chargesheeted in the case.

The NIA official said that during probe it was found that the accused south Kashmir residents had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the JeM leadership after which they received, transported and provided logistic support to the freshly infiltrated JeM terrorists, who entered into the Indian territory in order to carry out a suicidal attack on the security forces in Jammu region to disrupt the scheduled visit of PM Modi to the region.