Pulwama attack: NIA to file charge-sheet on Tuesday

DHNS

Srinagar, 25 Aug 2020: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is going to file a 5000-page charge-sheet on the gruesome Pulwama attack that took place on 14 February 2019, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, in a special court in Jammu on Tuesday.

 

According to sources Pakistan-based chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Asghar has been named as the masterminds of the Pulwama attack in the NIA charge-sheet.

 

The charge-sheet details how the planning and execution of one of the deadliest terror attacks in Kashmir were executed from Pakistan, they said.

 

“20 accused, including the Jaish conspirators, terrorists who were killed in various operations and half-a-dozen others accused of providing logistical support have been named in the charge-sheet,” sources added.

 

Masood Azhar’s video and audio recordings praising the Pulwama attack are also said to be part of the charge-sheet.

 

40 CRPF personnel, travelling in a convoy on south Kashmir highway in Pulwama district, were killed on 14 February 2019 when suicide-bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed a car loaded with explosives into the paramilitary bus at around 3.15 pm at Lethpora. The impact of the blast reduced the bus to a mangled heap.

 

Along with suicide bomber Adil, the key accused in the case Mudasir, Qari Mufti Yasser, Kamran and Sajjad Ahmed Bhat have all been killed by security forces in various encounters. However, other accused Shakir Bashir Magrey, Mohammed Iqbal Rather, Bilal Ahmed Kuchey, Mohammad Abbas Rather, Waiz-ul-Islam, father-daughter duo Tariq Ahmad Shah and Insha Jan all have been arrested by the NIA in the last one year.

 

The ruthless nature of the attack and the number of soldiers martyred stirred mass outrage in India and just 12 days later, Narendra Modi-led NDA government sanctioned a surgical airstrike on a JeM camp in Balakot area of Pakistan.