NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday said it has filed a charge sheet against five people including three Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers in a case relating to terror attacks in Dhangri village in Jammu & Kashmir's Rajouri district on January 1, 2023.
In an official statement, a spokesperson of the NIA said, the ‘heinous attack’ in Dhangri village was followed by an IED blast the next day. “Seven innocent people, including two children, were killed and several others severely injured in the attacks,” the official said.
The official further informed that three among the five accused named in the charge sheet are LeT handlers, identified as Saifullah @ Sajid Jutt @ Ali @ Habibullah @ Numan @ Langda @ Noumi, Mohd Qasim, and Abu Qatal @ Qatal Sindhi. “While Abu Qatal and Sajit Jutt are Pakistani nationals, Qasim had exfiltrated to Pakistan sometime around 2002 and had joined the LeT terrorist ranks there,” he said.
The NIA in its investigation into the case found that the trio had orchestrated the recruitment and dispatch of LeT terrorists from Pakistan to target innocent civilians, particularly from the minority community in Jammu & Kashmir, as well as security personnel, the official said, adding that the attacks “were carried out under the directions of these Pakistan-based handlers”.
“Saifullah is currently a highly placed LeT commander, and was responsible for engineering the overall conspiracy from Pakistan, along with the other two. Mohd Qasim is presently the right hand of highly placed LeT Commanders. Abu Qatal had come to India in 2002-03 and was active in the Poonch-Rajouri range, along with other terrorists,” the NIA said.
The two others, who have been named in the charge sheet, are Nisar Ahmed alias Haji Nisar and Mushtaq Hussain alias Chacha, the official said, adding that both of them are overground workers (OGWs) of the LeT and are residents of Mohra, Gursai, Tehsil Mendhar, District Poonch, the NIA said. The two of them were arrested during the course of the investigations by the NIA, it added.
“It was found during investigations that they had provided logistical support to the terrorists on the directions of Abu Qatal. Along with a juvenile, who was also apprehended for aiding and abetting the perpetrators, they had provided food, shelter, and other types of logistics support to the terrorists for approximately three months following the attack in Dhangri. They had also attempted to conceal evidence by destroying the mobile phone used for clandestine communication with the Pakistan-based LeT commanders,” the NIA alleged.
