NIA charge sheets 25 J&K militants for targeted killings

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against 25 militants from Jammu and Kashmir in a terrorism conspiracy case that pertains to targeted killings of minorities, civilians, migrants, government officials and unguarded security personnel

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a charge sheet against 25 militants from Jammu and Kashmir in a terrorism conspiracy case that pertains to targeted killings of minorities, civilians, migrants, government officials and unguarded security personnel.

The NIA charge sheet explains the hatching of a conspiracy by cadres of proscribed terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

The charge sheet explains the hatching of a conspiracy by cadres of proscribed terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr and their affiliates such as The Resistance Front (TRF) and People Anti-Fascist Forces (PAFF) both on physical as well as cyberspace to undertake violent terrorist acts in J&K and other parts of the country.

It revealed a clear shift in the strategy of the terrorist organisation towards targeted killings of minorities, civilians, migrants, government officials and unguarded security personnel that took place last year.

Filed in a special NIA court here in the National Capital, it explained how a deep-rooted conspiracy of Pakistan based proscribed terrorist organisations joined hands in form of a united group and shifting of their modus operandi by floating pseudo offshoot outfits portrayed as indigenous resistance groups, in whose name terrorist acts are being committed with an intention to claim deniability at the international level. After the abrogation of Article 370, this shift was discernible in claims of terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir, said NIA in the charge sheet.

“Many affiliate or offshoots outfits such as TRF, PAFF, United Liberation Front, Muslim Janbaaz Force (MJF), Kashmir Janbaaz Force (KJF), Kashmir Tigers, Kashmir Fight, Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind and Kashmir Gaznavi Force have suddenly mushroomed, laying claims to various terrorist acts,” reports the NIA in its charge sheet.

“The investigation established that all these pseudo-outfits are in fact offshoots or rechristened versions of proscribed terrorist organisations based in Pakistan and have been floated under a deep-rooted conspiracy to portray terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir as home-grown insurgency,” states the charge sheet.

The charge sheet mentioned that a “well-organised propaganda machinery operating on cyberspace through various websites, blogs, social media handles and closed channels on encrypted communication platforms wherein concocted and skewed narrative is presented to impressionable and Pakistan based nodes have been used to radicalise youth”. .

“A key element of aforementioned conspiracy was inducting new cadres in form of ‘hybrid terrorists’ belonging to various walks of life, who could use their cover to remain rooted in the society and simultaneously carry out instructions of their terrorist handlers. While acting as overground workers, they were also found indulging in terrorist actions such as grenade lobbing, undertaking lone attacks on vulnerable targets and arson” said the charge sheet.

Those named in the charge sheet are Bashir Ahmed Peer, Imtiyaz Kundoo, Bilal Ahmed Mir, Owais Ahmed Dar, Tariq Ahmed Dar, Tariq Ahmed Bafanda, Mohd Haneef Chairalu, Hanan Gulzar Dar, Mateen Ahmed Bhat, Kamran Ashraf Reshi, Rayid Bashir, Mohd. Manan Dar, Zamin Adil Bhat,Hariis Nisar Langoo, Rouf Ahmad Bhat, Sobiya Aziz Mir, Amir Ahmad Gojree, Sadaat Amin Malik,Ishfaq Amin Wani, Rashid Muzafar Ganai, Nashir Ahmad Mir, Irfan Tariq Antoo, Suhail Ahmad Thokar, Adil Ahmad War and Arif Farooq Bhat. They are all residents of J&K.