Calling the Pulwama attack a “well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based leadership of terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad”, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its chargesheet filed on Tuesday.
Masood Azhar’s video and audio recordings praising the Pulwama attack are also part of the charge-sheet. Other digital imprints include a Jaish-e-Mohammed Telegram group that had a post soon after the attack claiming “100 Indian ‘HINDU’ soldiers were killed and destroyed”.
The other pieces of evidence include photographs of “every step” of the attack, from planning to execution, spanning over 10 months; logs of WhatsApp calls to numbers in Pakistan with pinpointed locations; records of several lakhs of rupees deposited in two Pakistan bank accounts in Umer Farooq’s name.
Forty CRPF personnel were killed when a suicide bomber, later identified as Adil Ahmed Dar, a local resident, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy in Pulwama on February 14 last year. The NIA has said Dar used about 200 kg of explosives.
Execution of the attack:
The main conspirator, the NIA claims, was Jaish terrorist Mohd Umar Farooq, the son of Ibrahim Athar, the main accused in the IC 814 hijack of 1999. Ibrahim Athar is older brother of Masood Azhar, investigators say.
The charge-sheet says 20 Kg of RDX was brought from Pakistan via Samba in Jammu by Umar Farooq, who was killed by special forces in Kashmir in March this year.
Other explosives like ammonium nitrate were procured through an e-commerce platform. The bulky NIA document includes call recordings and WhatsApp chats with photos of explosives, including RDX, being transported, found on Umar Farooq’s phone. For the first time, photographs of three terrorists fabricating the bomb used in Pulwama are revealed.
The charge sheet claims that after Pulwama, the Jaish terrorists had planned to carry out another attack. They had even arranged a car and had Fidayeen or suicide bombers ready but were thwarted by India’s air strikes in Balakot to destroy a Jaish terror training facility.
The NIA’s case rests on technical and material evidence to establish the link between local Jaish operatives and their handlers in Pakistan.
Masood Azhar’s video and audio recordings praising the Pulwama attack are also part of the charge-sheet. Other digital imprints include a Jaish-e-Mohammed Telegram group that had a post soon after the attack claiming “100 Indian Hindu soldiers were killed and destroyed”.
Azhar is wanted in India for several attacks including the 26/11 Mumbai terror.
The names of the accused are:
- Adil Ahmed Dar: the suicide bomber who rammed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy on February 14.
- Umer Farooq: Jaish commander who oversaw the execution of the attack and who assembled the bomb used in the attack. He was killed in an encounter on March this year along with another bomb-making expert, Kamran.
- Shakir Bashir Magrey: He allegedly drove the car used in the attack but got off around 500 meters from the attack site. His role included procuring gloves, battery and ammonium powder used to assemble the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) through an e-commerce web portal. Magrey, a furniture shop owner near the site, closely monitored the movement of security convoys and shared the details with Umer Farooq and Adil Ahmed Dar.
- Mohammed Iqbal Rather: The NIA says the 25-year-old from Budgam facilitated transport from picking up Pak-based terrorists to bringing them into Kashmir. The NIA arrested Rather in July.
- Bilal Ahmed Kuchey: Allegedly procured high-end mobile phones for Jaish, one of which was used to record a video as Adil Ahmed Dar slammed his vehicle into the CRPF convoy.
- The other accused are Mohammad Abbas Rather, Waiz-ul-Islam, father-daughter duo Tariq Ahmad Shah and Insha Jan – all alleged Jaish terrorists.
