Rattled Pakistan refuses to accept terror charges after NIA exposes Pulwama attack plot

Even as Pakistan's role in 2019 Pulwama terror attack has been exposed a number of times, including recent chargesheet by National Investigation ncy (NIA), Imran Khan-ruled country has blatantly rejected charges. In a statement on Wednesday, Pakistan's Foreign Office claimed that India's chargesheet is a 'mischievous attempt’ to implicate Islamabad and has been filed keeping in view 'domestic political interests'. Moreover, rattled Pakistan also recounted its 'peace gesture' in releasing IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan even though it was due to India's exemplary diplomatic pressure that Pakistan was forced to release India's hero who had shot down a PAF F-16.

Pakistan's statement 

statement said: "At outset, Pakistan had rejected India’s baseless allegations and expressed readiness to extend cooperation on basis of any actionable information. India failed to provide any credible evidence for its invective and has instead been using attack for its malicious propaganda campaign against Pakistan."

"Pakistan categorically rejects so-called ‘charge sheet’ by India’s National Investigation ncy (NIA), which mischievously attempts to implicate Pakistan in Pulwama attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) last year. fabrications in reported ‘charge sheet’ are patently designed to furr BJP’s anti-Pakistan rhetoric and its narrow domestic political interests."

READ | Pakistan link to Pulwama EXPOSED: NIA recovers Pak Identity Card of key accused

NIA chargesheet

NIA has filed a 13,500-p charge sheet naming several Pakistani nationals, including key conspirator Masood Azhar Alvi, as accused in case. Ors named in charge sheet include Pakistani nationals Rouf Asgar Alvi, Ammar Alvi, Mohd Ismail, Mohd Kamran Ali, and Qari Yasir. According to NIA, terror attack was a plot hatched by Jaish, with assistance from Islamabad, to project attack as handiwork of terrorists operating in Kashmir.

Out of 19 names in chargesheet, seven are said to be in NIA's custody, ar seven are said to have been encountered by forces, and five are said to be in Pakistan. seven JeM operatives under NIA's custody include Mohammad Abbas Rar, Tariq Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Iqbal Rar,  Shakir Bashir Magrey, Waiz-ul-Islam, Insha Jan, and Bilal Ahmed Kuchey.

On July 5, NIA made 7th arrest in Pulwama terror attack case.   arrested individual – Bilal Ahmed Kuchey – who runs a sawmill has been accused of harbouring and extending support to Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists involved in attack. Kuchey introduced terrorists to or Over Ground Workers who provided m safe houses during planning of attack. 

ncy has also recovered a Pakistan National Identity Card from one of 19 terrorists named in chargesheet, Muhammad Umar Farooq, who has been killed by security forces. Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) is an identity card issued by Pakistan government and is available to any citizen that is 18 years. It is an equivalent India's Aadhaar Card.

READ | Pakistan Jumps At Farooq & NC's Resolution To Restore Article 370; Adds Congress To Mix

Pulwama terror attack

At around 3 pm on February 14, 2019, a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist drove an explosive-laden SUV into a convoy of vehicles carrying CRPF personnel on Srinagar-Jammu national highway in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district. This resulted in killing of 40 CRPF personnel. Around 80 kg of explosives were used for attack.

According to NIA sources, 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 attack as a result of a home-grown militancy against “India’s occupation of Kashmir”. Around 12 days after terror attack, in wee hours of February 26, Indian Air Force (IAF) jets had bombed JeM camp in Balakot, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as a retaliation to cowardly attack. 

READ | Sacred mission to restore what was snatched from J&K on August 5: Farooq's & Omar's NC

READ | 'Article 370 internationalised Kashmir; I'm same with one difference': Farooq Abdullah\

(change graphic)