Masood Azhar and family including 19 others named in the chargesheet of Pulwama attack

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed a 13,500-page charge sheet against 19 people for planning and executing the Pulwama terror attack on February 2019. The ghastly suicide attack took place on February 14 last year, when Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Adil Ahmed Dar rammed a Maruti EECO car filled with explosives into a CRPF vehicle at Jammu-Srinagar highway. The attack had resulted in the killing of 40 CRPF jawans while eight others were grievously injured.Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brothers Abdul Rauf Asghar and Ammar Alvi, and nephew Umar Farooq are among those named in the charge sheet by the agency. Farooq was the son of IC-814 hijacking accused Ibrahim Athar who was in India to execute the Pulwama conspiracy and was killed in March 2019 in an encounter by security forces.

Officials say that the charge sheet has irrefutable evidence - technical, material and circumstantial - on Pakistan’s role in the attack. It cites the roles of the JeM leadership and the arrested accused in the attack and has details like chats, calls details of terrorists.NIA probe has revealed that Pakistan used Adil Ahmad Dar, a local resident who rammed an explosive-laden car into a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, as a suicide bomber to project the attack as a result of a home-grown militancy against “India’s occupation of Kashmir”, one of the officers said. Azhar, who founded JeM in 2000 after he was freed from an Indian prison in exchange for 155 passengers of a hijacked aircraft, and Asghar have been named as the primary accused in the charge sheet.

The NIA investigation has found out that the Jaish had also planned a second Pulwama-like attack to target security force convoy on National Highway in Kashmir Valley in March. But the move was foiled after India responded with Balakote Strike.The NIA has found that apart from Adil Ahmed Dar, the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Pulwama attack, Jaish had also readied another local - 24 years old Shakir Bashir Magrey from Kakapora in Pulwama - for the suicide mission.Magrey, a furniture shop owner at Lethpora, was prepared by Jaish terrorist Qari Yasir for the second suicide attack. Magrey was also a key conspirator in the Pulwama terror attack. He drove the car used in the February 14t attack but got off the vehicle around 500 meters from the attack site. His role included procuring gloves, battery and ammonium powder that was used to assemble the IED through an e-commerce web portal. An NIA top official said, "The IED was under preparation, the suicide bomber and vehicle were ready. But before they could unleash the second attack, top commanders were eliminated, while Magrey was arrested."