The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed an exhaustive chargesheet of 13,800 pages in a special court in Jammu against 19 people for planning and executing the Pulwama terror attack. The ghastly suicide attack took place on February 14 last year, when Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Adil Ahmed Dar rammed a Maruti EECO car filled with explosives into a CRPF vehicle at Jammu-Srinagar highway. The attack had resulted in the killing of 40 CRPF jawans while eight others were grievously injured.
The NIA investigation, in its chargesheet, has revealed how a terror conspiracy was launched by Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his family. As per the chargesheet, the JeM leadership – consisting of Masood Azhar, Rouf Asgar and Ammar Alvi alias Chacha alias Chota Masood – were continuously giving directions and guidance to the Pakistani JeM terrorists who had infiltrated into India both before and after the attack.
Second Pulwama attack foiled
The NIA investigation has found out that the Jaish had also planned a second Pulwama-like attack to target security force convoy on National Highway in Kashmir Valley in March. But the move was foiled after India responded with Balakote Strike.
The NIA has found that apart from Adil Ahmed Dar, the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Pulwama attack, Jaish had also readied another local – 24 years old Shakir Bashir Magrey from Kakapora in Pulwama – for the suicide mission.
Magrey, a furniture shop owner at Lethpora, was prepared by Jaish terrorist Qari Yasir for the second suicide attack. Magrey was also a key conspirator in the Pulwama terror attack. He drove the car used in the February 14t attack but got off the vehicle around 500 meters from the attack site. His role included procuring gloves, battery and ammonium powder that was used to assemble the IED through an e-commerce web portal. An NIA top official said, “The IED was under preparation, the suicide bomber and vehicle were ready. But before they could unleash the second attack, top commanders were eliminated, while Magrey was arrested.”
India Today tracks down how NIA cracked open the case.
It all began with the encounter on March 29, a month after the Pulwama attack where the main accused Mohammad Umar Farooq was killed along with IED maker Kamran. A Pakistani, Farooq is the nephew of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar and son of IC-814 hijacker Ibrahim Azhar. Umar Farooq 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 the Jaish-e-Mohammad commander of Pulwama.
Key Pulwama terror attack accused Umar Farooq’s Pakistani ID card. He was shot dead in an encounter in India a month after the Pulwama terror attack.
After Umar Farooq’s encounter, the Jammu and Kashmir Police recovered several items. Amongst these items was a Samsung S-9 Galaxy phone worth over Rs 70,000, a high-end model with double encryption. After several attempts to decipher and decode the phone, the phone reportedly found its way in Nowgam Police Station Maal-khana (warehouse).
Later, when Centre handed over the probe to NIA, the phone was sent to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) by J&K Police on recommendations of the NIA. An official said, “We requested then IG Kashmir SP Pani to send the phone to retrieve data as efforts in Kashmir had not paid many dividends. Besides, Cert-in had expertise in these matters.”
This is where the agency got hold of 100 videos and photographs, which were all deleted after being sent to Umar Farooq’s uncle Maulana Mohammed Ammar via WhatsApp.
Besides the mobile footage shot by terrorists themselves, the NIA also found footprints of the infiltrating group bringing RDX with it from the Jammu sector IB. A Whatsapp message was sent to the Jaish commanders informing them that the explosive had crossed safely into J&K.
A source privy to the investigation said that recovered videos also included several takes of the confessional propaganda video by Adil Ahmad Dar.
“Several takes were taken with Mohammad Umar and Sameer Dar present in the room. However, they found that Adil was not a good speaker. Sameer Dar was however fluent, and was thus was chosen to speak a-loud from behind him, while the suicide bomber lip-synched. Several takes were recorded until they arrived at a satisfactory final take. The video was then sent to Ammar in Pakistan via WhatsApp. In Pakistan, the terror group enhanced the video, added some changed and sent it back to Umar Farooq to upload after the attack.
Mohammed Umar Farooq with uncle Maulana Mohammed Ammar. Both were in touch for planning and execution of the Pulwama terror attack
While the mobile phone gave a plethora of concrete evidence against the Pakistan-based terror group, the NIA officials say they did not solely rely on one phone to crack the case. The anti-terror probe agency sleuths painstakingly went into each recovery made after 20-odd encounters of Jaish operatives to find a link with Pulwama terror attack.
Sole woman accused in Pulwama attack case
Insha Jan, a 22-year-old is the only woman in the terror conspiracy. The NIA has also recovered a picture of her holding a weapon, smiling along with Umar Farooq. The NIA believes that Insha was in a relationship with the Pakistani terrorist and her father Peer Tariq Ahmad Shah knew about it. Along with another accused Bilal Ahmad Kuchey, the trio provided all logistics and harboured the JeM terrorists in their houses.
Insha Jan with Umar Farooq (PTI image)
Terror plot was brewing since December 2018
The NIA has revealed that the terror plot was in offing for long. In December 2018 onwards, the wannabe suicide bomber Shakir Bashir had started doing reconnaissance of the movement and deployment of security forces on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Mudasir Ahmad Khan arranged gelatin sticks and handed them over to Shakir Bashir. RDX was brought by the Pakistani terrorists who infiltrated into India. Shakir Bashir collected the explosive material ie, RDX, gelatin sticks, aluminium power and calcium-ammonium nitrate, and stocked them at his house for making the IED.
In January 2019, Sajjad Ahmad Bhat purchased a Maruti EECO car for the purpose of carrying out the IED attack. The car was kept in the front-yard of Shakir Bashir’s house. Waiz-Ul-Islam, a Srinagar-based student ordered 4 kgs of aluminium powder from his Amazon account on the directions of accused Mohammed Ismail alias Saifullah and gave the same to him.
In the first week of February 2019, Umar Farooq, Sameer Ahmad Dar, Adil Ahmad Dar and Shakir Bashir made the IED using RDX, calcium-ammonium nitrate, gelatin sticks and aluminium powder and assembled it in two containers, one weighing around 160 kgs and the second one weighing around 40 Kgs. The two IED containers were fitted in Maruti EECO car and were ready for an attack on the morning of February 6, 2019. However, heavy snowfall closed the national highway, forcing the terrorists to postpone their plans.
On February 14, 2019, when the snow cleared, Shakir Bashir drove Adil Ahmad Dar till the national highway, after which Adil Ahmad Dar took charge of the vehicle and carried out the suicide attack by ramming the Maruti EECO car laden with 200 kgs of high-grade explosives into a bus of the CRPF convoy, resulting in the killing of 40 CRPF personnel and damages to the tune of Rs 32,90,719 to the public property.
Jaish modules exposed
The NIA investigation also revealed a well-crafted mechanism by the Pakistani establishment to push terrorists into the Indian territory from the launch pads located in Shakargarh (Pakistan) opposite Samba-Kathua Sector in Jammu.
A top official leading the probe said, “We have not only exposed how Jaish conspired in the terror plot, but also how they work in modules. There is an infiltration module where terrorists are sent from launchpads from across the border; transportation module which transports the terrorists from border to locations in South Kashmir; the third module is of the Over Ground Workers (OGW), who help in providing logistical support and shelter. The final one is the execution module, which executes the terror attack.”
The NIA said that evidence of the investigation will be shared with the Indian team heading for the FATF meet in Paris. The FATF has already put Pakistan under the grey list.
The NIA officials believe a lot of digital, forensic, documentary and oral evidence establishing a fool-proof case against the accused of this dastardly and barbaric attack has been collected. The chargesheet has brought on record the all-out involvement of Pakistan-based entities to carry out terrorist strikes in India and to incite and provoke Kashmiri youth.
From top L-R: Mohd Abbas Rather, Shakir Ahmed Margrey, Adil Ahmed Dar | Bottom L-R: Insha Jan, Maulana Ammar
Here is the list of accused named in NIA chargesheet in Pulwama terror attack case:
i) Masood Azhar, 52 years, Pakistani national (Absconding)
ii) Rouf Asgar, 47 years, Pakistani national (Absconding)
iii) Ammar Alvi, 46 years, Pakistani national (Absconding)
iv) Shakir Bashir, 24 Years, r/o Kakapora, Pulwama, J&K. (Arrested)
v) Insha Jan, 22 Years r/o Kakapora, Pulwama, J&K (Arrested)
vi) Peer Tariq Ahmed Shah, 53 Years, r/o Kakapora, Pulwama, J&K (Arrested)
vii) Waiz-ul-Islam, 20 Years, r/o Srinagar, J&K (Arrested)
viii) Mohd Abbas Rather, 31 Years, r/o Kakapura, Pulwama, J&K. (Arrested)
ix) Bilal Ahmed Kuchhey, 28 years, r/o Hajibal, Lalhar, Pulwama, J&K (Arrested)
x) Mohd Iqbal Rather, 25 years, r/o, Charar-e-Shareef, Budgam, J&K. (Arrested)
xi) Mohd Ismail, 25 years, r/o Pakistani national (Absconding)
xii) Sameer Ahmad Dar, 22 years, r/o Kakapora, Pulwama, Kashmir (Absconding)
xiii) Ashaq Ahmed Nengroo, 33 years, r/o Rajpura, Pulwama. (Absconding)
xiv) Adil Ahmed Dar, 21 years, r/o Kakapora, Pulwama, Kashmir (Killed)
xv) Muhammad Umar Farooq, 24 years, r/o Pakistani national (Killed)
xvi) Mohd Kamran Ali, 25 years, r/o Pakistani national (Killed)
xvii) Sajjad Ahmed Bhat, 19 years, r/o Bijbehera, Anantnag (Killed)
xviii) Mudasir Ahmad Khan, 24 years, r/o Awantipura, Pulwama (Killed)
xix) Qari Yasir, r/o Pakistani national (Killed)
Read | NIA chargesheet in Pulwama terror attack case names Jaish chief Masood Azhar, 6 other Pakistanis
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Watch | NIA names Jaish chief Masood Azhar in Pulwama terror attack chargesheet