NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has granted sanction to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file a charge sheet against Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and three other Pak nationals involved in the Pathankot airbase terror strike case.
After having received the sanction from the Ministry under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA will now name Azhar, his brother Rauf Asghar, and handlers of four terrorists -- Qashif Jan and Shahid Latif in the charge sheet to be filed before a designated court soon, a senior Union Home Ministry official said.
The four terrorists, after entering into India from Bamiyal area of Gurdaspur, had hit the strategic Pathankot Indian Air Force base killing eight persons including seven personnel of IAF and NSG. The fresh charge sheet will help India in building pressure on the international community and the United Nations to declare Azhar and his outfit a designated global terrorist and global terror group respectively under the United Nations' sanctions list.
The previous attempts were junked after China exercised its authority of putting the matter on technical hold. The charge sheet will name these four terrorists.
According to the NIA findings, the terrorists, who were killed by the security forces after two days of encounter were identified as Nasir Hussain,Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum and they were residents of Vehari (Punjab), Gujranwala (Punjab), Sanghar (Sindh) and Sukkur (Sindh) districts of Pakistan respectively.