According to the charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Mohammad Omar Farooq, the nephew of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, who carried out the Pulwama attack on 14 February 2019, wanted to target a team of BBC journalists. The suicide bomber wanted to attack journalists who had gone to the home of Adil Ahmed Dar to interview his father Ghulam Hasan Dar.
The National Investigation Agency cited a conversation between Omar Farooq and his Pakistan-based uncle Ammar Alvi on 21 February 2019, stating that Farooq wanted to target his uncle BBC journalists present in the valley. He felt that doing so would attract international attention to Jaish-e-Mohammed. To ensure this, the NIA has heard the conversation between the two, although it is not clear whether the journalists were present in the valley at that time.
According to the chargesheet, Alvi Nefarooq was asked to “celebrate the success of the Pulwama attack” and refused permission to attack the reporters. The names of those BBC journalists have not been given in the charge sheet. The charge sheet mentions 46-year-old Alvi as the leading handler in the Pulwama attack. Along with this, the names of Farooq, Azhar, Abdul Ruf Asgar, and 15 others have also been written. The NIA has discovered some of Alvi’s 2016 photographs in which he is seen with Farooq at a training center in Sangin in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
The charge sheet said that Omar Farooq, who was trapped in Kashmir even after the Pulwama attack, was worried by Pakistan after 44 suspected terrorists, including Azhar and Abdul Ruf Asghar, took this step in view of international pressure. . An officer investigating the case quoted the charge sheet as saying, “The handler of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who was in contact with Farooq, was informed by the ISI that it was all just a show-off and released his leaders soon. will be given.” The NIA has put together a copy of this conversation in the charge sheet.
In another conversation, Farooq, the leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed, praised Shakir Bashir of Kashmir, according to him, Shakir played the same role as Afzal Guru during a 2001 parliament attack. The 24-year-old Shakir was a resident of Kakapora and was the first person arrested in this case. The 200 kg IED used in the Pulwama attack was collected at his house and he also carried a CRPF convoy, arranged explosives, helped fit the bomb in the car and drove the suicide bomber to the attack site. Was. The agency has received hundreds of video clips, voice notes and WhatsApp messages from Farooq’s phone in which Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists
They are seen celebrating, training and practicing before being sent to India. Some videos were also linked to schemes and money transactions. According to the NIA chargesheet, Farooq spent a total of 5.7 lakh Pakistani rupees (approximately 2.51 lakh rupees at today’s exchange rate), in arranging explosives and other items for the Pulwama attack, totaling 10 lakh Pakistani rupees in his two banks. The accounts transferred were Allied Bank Limited and Meezan Bank of Pakistan, located across the border. It is not clear how he withdrew the money.
The NIA cited a United Nations report of May 2020 stating that the Jaish-e-Mohammed has close ties with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It states that Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) facilitate the smuggling of terrorist fighters into Afghanistan who serve as advisors, trainers and specialists in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Farooq was also trained in Afghanistan in 2016-17.
It added that Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba had around 800 and 200 armed fighters stationed with Taliban forces in Mohmand Dargah, Dur Baba and Sherzad districts of Nangarhar province. They work under the aegis of the Afghan Taliban. NIA Director General YC Modi said: “Our charge sheet is based on full-proof digital, forensic, documentary and oral evidence collected against the accused of this brutal and barbaric attack. The charge sheet has set a record of involving Pakistan-based institutions to carry out terrorist attacks in India and inciting and inciting Kashmiri youth.
