: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday filed a chargesheet against 19 persons accused in 2019 suicide bombing case on paramilitary CRPF convoy that left 40 CRPF men dead.
A 13,800 pages chargesheet against 19 accused persons was filed by NIA before its Special Court at Jammu in connection with RC-02/2019/NIA/JMU under sections 120-B, 121, 121-A, 122, 123, 307, 302 of the RPC, sections 7, 25, 27 of Arms Act, sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act, Sections 16, 17, 18, 18A, 18B, 19, 20, 21, 38 and 39 of the UA (P) Act, Section 14 C of Foreigners Act and Section 4 of Jammu and Kashmir Public Property (Prevention of Damages) Act, 1985.
“The investigation revealed that the Pulwama attack was a result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit. The JeM leaders have been sending their cadres to the training camps of Al-Qaida-Taliban-JeM and Haqqani-JeM in Afghanistan for receiving training in explosives and other militant tactics,” the NIA spokeswoman said.
On 14 February 2019, 40 paramilitary CRPF personnel were killed and eight others injured in a powerful blast along the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Lethpora.
JeM’s local suicide bomber, Adil Ahmad Dar, a resident of Pulwama, had rammed an Improvised Explosive Device-laden Eeco car into a CRPF bus which was part of a convoy moving toward Srinagar.
Among the 19 accused persons six have already been killed in gunfights with the forces in Kashmir.
The other five are Muhammad Umar Farooq, 24, Muhammad Kamran Ali, 25, Qari Yasir, all Pakistanis, Sajad Ahmad Bhat, 19, of Bijbehera in Anantnag and Mudasir Ahmad Khan, 24, of Awantipora, Pulwama.
The NIA has also named JeM chief Masood Azhar, 52, of Pakistan, as an accused in the case and shown him as absconding.
The other absconding accused in the case are Rouf Asgar, 47, Ammar Alvi, 46, Muhammad Ismail, 25, all from Pakistan, Sameer Ahmad Dar, 22, of Kakapora, Pulwama, and Ashaq Ahmed Nengroo, 33, of Rajpora, Pulwama.
Non-bailable warrants have been issued against the absconding accused and further investigation in the case is on, the NIA said.
Among the 19 accused persons, NIA has already arrested seven. They are Shakir Bashir, 24, Insha Jan, 22, Peer Tariq Ahmed Shah, 53, Muhammad Abbas Rather, 31, all from Kakapora Pulwama, Waiz-ul-Islam, 20, of Srinagar,
Bilal Ahmed Kuchey, 28, of Hajibal, Lalhar, Pulwama and Muhammad Iqbal Rather, 25, of Charar-e-Sharief, Budgam.
The NIA spokeswoman said Muhammad Umar Farooq, the main accused, also visited Afghanistan for explosives training in 2016-17.
“He infiltrated into India through the International Border at Jammu-Samba sector in April 2018 and took over as JeM Commander of Pulwama. Umar along with his Pakistani compatriots, Kamran, Ismail alias Saifullah and Qari Yasir and local associates, Sameer Dar and Adil Dar planned and prepared for the attack on the forces using IEDs,” she said.
Shakir Bashir, Insha Jan, Peer Tariq and Bilal Kuchey provided all logistics and “harboured” the JeM militants in their houses, the NIA said.
It said Shakir Bashir started conducting reconnaissance of the movement and deployment of the forces on the Srinagar-Jammu highway from December 2018 onward while Mudasir Khan arranged gelatin sticks and handed them over to Shakir.
“RDX was brought by the Pakistani militants who infiltrated into this side. Shakir collected the explosive material – RDX, gelatin sticks, aluminium powder and calcium-ammonium nitrate and stocked them at his house for making the IED,” the NIA spokeswoman said.
She said that the Maruti Eeco car, which was used in the attack, was purchased by Sajad Ahmad Bhat in January 2019.
“The car was kept in the courtyard of Shakir’s house. Waiz-ul-Islam ordered 4 kg aluminium powder from his Amazon account on the directions of Saifullah and gave the same to him,” the spokeswoman said.
The video clip of the suicide attack, which was released immediately after the attack, was made by Umar Farooq, Sameer Dar and Adil Dar toward the end of January 2019.
The trio along with Shakir made the IED using RDX, calcium-ammonium nitrate, gelatin sticks and aluminium powder and assembled it in two containers – one weighing around 160 kg and the second weighing around 40 kg.
According to NIA, the two containers were fitted in Maruti EECO car and were ready by the morning of 6 Feb 2019.
“However, the highway got closed for the vehicular movement due to snowfall. On 14 February 2019, as the highway opened, Shakir drove Adil Dar up to the highway after which Adil took charge of the vehicle and drove on to the highway and carried out the suicide attack by ramming the car laden with 200 kg of high-grade explosives into a bus of the CRPF convoy,” the NIA said.
Besides killing 40 CRPF personnel, the attack caused damage to the tune of Rs.32.91 lakh to the public property, it said.
The spokesman said that investigation had revealed that the Pakistan-based JeM leadership consisting of Masood Azhar, Rouf Asgar and Ammar Alvi were continuously giving directions and guidance to the Pakistani JeM militants (who had infiltrated into Kashmir) both before and after the attack.
“They had also planned to carry out another suicide attack which got averted due to Balakot strikes and due to the killing of main conspirator, Umar Farooq, by the forces,” she said, adding Pakistan also lied low due to the International pressure.
The NIA investigation also revealed a well-crafted mechanism by Pakistani establishment to push militants into this side from the launchpads located in Shakargarh (Pakistan) opposite Samba-Kathua sector in Jammu.
The chargesheet was filed a year and a half after the NIA’s “meticulous investigation” with valuable inputs received from other central and state government agencies as well as foreign law-enforcement agencies.
“A lot of digital, forensic, documentary and oral evidence establishing a fool-proof case against the accused has been collected,” the NIA said.