NIA arrests “transportation module” member of Jaish in Pulwama attack

The NIA said Mohammad Iqbal Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, a JeM terrorist and a key conspirator in the Pulwama terror attack case, to south Kashmir after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April, 2018.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested a member of Jaish-e-Mohammad’s “transportation module” in connection with the Pulwama terror attack of February 2109 that killed 40 CRPF troopers, an official said.

Mohammad Iqbal Rather (25), a resident of Budgam, allegedly ferried a terrorist who helped in making bomb that was used by a suicide car bomber to attack a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in February 2019.(NIA)

The accused, Mohammad Iqbal Rather (25), a resident of Budgam, allegedly ferried a terrorist who helped in making bomb that was used by a suicide car bomber to attack the CRPF convoy.

NIA Spokesperson Sonia Narang said in a statement that Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, a JeM terrorist and a key conspirator in the case, to south Kashmir after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April, 2018, from the national highway near international border.

“Farooq, along with others, had assembled the bomb used in the February 14, 2019 attack (in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed). Rather had been undergoing judicial custody since September, 2018 in another Jaish-e-Mohammed related case investigated by NIA,” Narang said.

“As such, he was produced by the jail authorities before the NIA Special Court, Jammu on Thursday and was taken into seven days’ custody for his interrogation. Initial examination has revealed that Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications. He was part of the ‘transportation module’ of Jaish-e-Mohammed,” Narang added.

The NIA had earlier arrested five persons in the course of the probe into the bombing in Pulwama. Shakir Bashir Magrey, Mohammad Abbas Rather, Waiz-ul-Islam, a young girl – Insha Jan and her father Tariq Ahmad Shah were nabbed in last week of February and first week of March this year, over a year after the terror strike.