NIA files chargesheet against 3 terrorists in weapon snatching case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a charge sheet against three Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists in connection with the snatching of service weapons of the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar.

Jammu:The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a charge sheet against three Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists in a 2019 case related to a conspiracy to revive terrorism in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said.

The charge sheet against Jaffer Hussain of Hunjalla and Taraq Hussain Giri of Pochhal in Kishtwar and Tanveer Ahmad Malik of Tantna in Doda district was filed before a special court in Jammu, a spokesperson of the NIA said.

He said charges would be abated against three slain Hizbul terrorists -- Osama Bin Javed alias 'Osama', Haroon Abbas Wani and Zahid Hussain alias 'Zahid' -- for their involvement in various terror-related incidents in the Doda-Kishtwar belt.

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The trio were killed by security forces in separate encounters in 2019 and 2020.

"Hussain, Malik and Giri were providing logistics support and organising shelter for the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists involved in the multiple terrorist incidents, the spokesperson said.

He said a case was initially registered on March 8, 2019 at Police Station Kishtwar relating to the snatching of the service weapon of the escort in-charge of the then Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar.

NIA had re-registered the case on November 2, 2019 and taken over the investigation which has revealed that the instant case was one of the several terrorist acts committed by Hizbul Mujahideen during the years 2018-2019 in Kishtwar district, the spokesperson said.

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He said the objective of all these terror acts was to revive militancy in Kishtwar by looting arms and targeting prominent persons of a particular community to create terror among the members of that community.

Kishtwar district recorded the first terror act in more than a decade on November 1, 2018 when senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar were killed outside their house in Kishtwar town. It was followed by the killing of RSS functionary Chaderkant Sharma and his PSO inside the district hospital on April 9, 2019 and looting of services rifles of two policemen on separate occasions in 2019.

On September 28, 2019, security forces achieved a major breakthrough when they killed three ultras, including Osama Bin Javed and his associate Zahid Hussain, in an encounter in Ramban.

Wani was killed in an encounter in the Gondana belt of Doda district on January 15 last year.

Agencies