2019 February Pulwama terror attack case: NIA court declares JeM chief Masood Azhar an absconder

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jammu on Tuesday declared terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar an as absconder in the 2019 February Pulwama terror attack case. The NIA had on August 25 filed a charge sheet in the case naming Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, slain terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq, suicide bomber Adil Ahmed Dar and other terrorist commanders operating from Pakistan.

These are apart from the six other accused arrested by the NIA in connection with the case. The 13,500-page-long charge sheet details how the planning and execution of one of the deadliest terror attacks in Kashmir was done from Pakistan.

According to the NIA lawyer, the next hearing of the Pulwama terror attack case has been fixed on September 15. An accused Waiz-ul-Islam has submitted a bail application citing the JEE mains examination in which he has to appear. The court will decide on the application on September 2 (Wednesday).

Over 40 soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a security convoy with a car full of explosives in February 2019. Ahead of filing the charge sheet, an NIA official had said, "The agency will file a charge sheet (on Tuesday) against Azhar, Asghar, their slain relative Farooque, six arrested accused in the Pulwama terror attack case at a Jammu Special NIA court."

The official had said that the agency has prepared a watertight case against the people named in the charge sheet along with all the irrefutable evidence, including their chats, call details to highlight the role of Pakistan in the February 14, 2019 attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed.

The official had said that this attack was a plot hatched by the Pakistan-based terror group to project the attack as the handiwork of terrorists operating in Kashmir.

The NIA has also accused several top commanders of the terrorist group in its charge sheet. The agency also arrested Mohammad Iqbal Rather, 25, a resident of Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir in July. Heis accused of facilitating the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, the JeM terrorist and a key conspirator in this case, after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in the Jammu region in April 2018.

Earlier, the NIA found that Rather was in constant touch with the Pakistan-based leadership of the JeM and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications and was also part of the transportation module of the terrorist organisation.

The other five arrested accused named in the charge sheet are Mohammad Abbas Rather, Waiz-ul-Islam, father-daughter duo Tariq Ahmad Shah and Insha Jan -- all alleged ground workers of the JeM.