NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has handed over the probe into the attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, where a doctor and six migrant workers were killed late Sunday evening, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
A four-member team has left for the Union Territory (UT), sources said on Monday.
The sources said a preliminary investigation revealed that the terrorists involved in the attack belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) offshoot present in the Valley, The Resistance Front (TRF).
Its chief, Sheikh Sajjad Gul, “is suspected to be the mastermind, and his group’s local module at his behest carried out the attack.”
It is to be noted that TRF chief Gul is wanted by the NIA in another terror case, the sources said. They added that this attack, which targeted both Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris together has been noticed for the first time in the recent past.
In 2022, the NIA announced a Rs 10 lakh reward each for information leading to the arrest of Gul and three others - Saifullah Sajid and Saleem Rahmani, who are residents of Pakistan, and Basit Ahmed, a resident of Kulgam in Jammu and Kashmir, for their involvement in terror activities in the UT.
In the recent past TRF has been active in J&K and has been targeting Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and non-locals, but the Sunday evening attack shows a change in the outfit’s strategy, as one of the locals also fell victim to the attack.
The terror group had carried out a recce of the attack site - a construction site in the Sonamarg area of Ganderbal district - for the last month, sources said, adding that two to three terrorists executed the targeted killings.
Sources in the MHA said, the NIA team visited the attack site in the afternoon and they will in due course be handed over the probe.
According to initial reports, the doctor, identified as Dr Shahnawaz, a resident of Naidgam in central Kashmir’s Budgam district and the migrant workers attacked were part of the construction team working on the Z-Morh tunnel, which connects Gaganeer to Sonamarg in the district.
The terrorists carried out the attack when the labourers and other staff working on the tunnel project returned to their camp late in the evening, leaving six labourers and a doctor dead.