NIA Files Charge Sheet In Pulwama Terror Attack

In a 13,500-page charge sheet filed in a Special NIA court in Jammu by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday accused Maulana Masood Azhar, his younger brothers – Abdul Rouf Asghar Alvi and Ammar Alvi, his nephew Mohammad Umar Farooq, and 15 others as top conspirators in the Pulwama Attack February last year.

"The charge-sheet lists 19 accused and details how the planning and execution of one of the deadliest terror attacks in Kashmir was done from Pakistan, where Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad is based. Six of the terrorists named by the NIA were eliminated, seven have been arrested and five are still missing, of which three are Pakistanis, according to the NIA," an NDTV report stated.

The NIA claimed Jaish terrorist Umar Farooq was the prime conspirator. Farooq was the son of Ibrahim Athar, one of the main accused in the IC 814 hijack of 1999. Farooq was killed by security forces in March last year. The charge-sheet said 20 Kg of RDX was brought from Pakistan via Samba in Jammu by Farooq.

A Hindustan Times report said, "In its charge sheet, NIA has included all his chats with his uncles Rouf Asghar and Ammar Alvi, in which they were continuously giving directions before, during and after the attack".

Furthermore, the report also mentioned, "Officials say that the charge sheet has irrefutable evidence – technical, material and circumstantial – on Pakistan's role in the attack".

On February 14, over 40 soldiers were killed in a security convoy at Kashmir's Pulwama when a suicide bomber attacked the convoy with a car full of explosives. Later, the Indian Air Force struck a Jaish terror training facility at Balakot in Pakistan that led to an air battle along the Line of Control.