The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against three terror operatives including one Pakistan national and two Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of "The Resistance Front", an offshoot of proscribed Lashkar-Taiba (LeT) – for conspiring to unleash terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the spokesperson, the NIA said that it is tightening the noose further around Pakistan-backed terrorist organizations operating in Jammu & Kashmir. The organization charged three more persons, affiliated with an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), for conspiring to unleash violent terrorist attacks with sticky bombs, IEDs, small arms, etc.
The spokesman further stated that the chargesheeted accused include a Pakistani national Habibullah Malik alias Sajid Jutt alias Saifullah alias Noomi alias Numan alias Langda alias Ali Sajid alias Usman Habib alias Shani, hailing from Kasur district in Pakistan, Punjab. He has been found to have been involved in various terrorist attacks in Poonch and Rajouri districts.
The chargesheet was also filed against two south Kashmir residents, Hilal Yaqoob Deva alias "Sethi Soab" and Musiab Fayaz Baba alias "Shoaib Zarar" of Shopian before the NIA special court here. They were charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Sajid Jutt was named as the mastermind of the Dhangri terror attack
The NIA in September 2023 named Sajid Jutt along with two other terrorists as masterminds of the gruesome Dhangri terror attack.
The NIA had identified three Pakistan-based LeT terrorists at whose behest the Dhangri massacre was carried out as Saifullah alias Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi, and Mohammad Wasim.
Jutt, who is known by various other names like Saifullah, Noomi, Numan, Langda, Ali Sajid, Usman Habib, and Shani, has been found to have been involved in various terrorist attacks in Poonch and Rajouri districts of the Jammu region.
The supplementary chargesheet follows investigations in the case registered suo-motu by the NIA on June 21 last year.
The case relates to a conspiracy hatched physically as well as in cyberspace by various proscribed terrorist organizations to spread fear and terror and disrupt peace in J&K by carrying out attacks using sticky bombs, Improvised Explosive Devices, and small arms.
Investigations so far have revealed that the charge-sheeted trio had entered into a criminal conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks on security forces and others in Jammu and Kashmir to wage war against the Government of India. Malik was an active commander of the Pakistan-based TRF.
Seven people killed in Dhangri terror attack
Seven people, including two minor children, were killed and 14 injured as terrorists attacked Dhangri on January 1 and January 2, 2023. While five people, including two brothers, were killed in the firing by terrorists, two children died when an improvised explosive device (IED) left behind by the attackers went off the next day.
Big security lapses were exposed when terrorists managed to trigger blasts through IEDs in the same house the next morning, where they killed two people the previous evening.
While four people were gunned down on January 1 evening, two children were killed and several others injured after a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast occurred in the same vicinity in Rajouri's Dangri village on January 2 morning. One injured person later succumbed to his injuries at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu.
Jutt was involved in motivating youth to join TRF
The official said Malik was engaged in motivating vulnerable Kashmiri youth to join the TRF and LeT for carrying out terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir
As per NIA investigations, Habibullah had radicalized the other two accused, Hilal and Musiab, both of whom had started working as Over Ground Workers (OGWs) for him. On Habibullah's directions, the two OWGs had collected and transported funds and weapons from/to his other OGWs to facilitate and support terror attacks in J&K.
The entire conspiracy was found to be part of the bigger plans of the banned terrorist outfits to commit acts of terror and violence by indoctrinating local youth and mobilizing overground workers to disturb the peace and communal harmony in J&K.
