Hospital attack: NIA to probe conspiracy angle

New Delhi, February 19

The National Investigation Agency, which has been asked to probe the escape of dreaded Lashkar terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jatt from a busy hospital in Srinagar, will investigate conspiracy angles, including how he got “favourable orders” for treatment from doctors and jail authorities, officials said here.

Senior Home Ministry officials said on the Centre’s advice, the state had already shifted 25 terrorists, including 16 Pakistan nationals, to various jails outside the Kashmir valley since the escape of 22-year-old Jatt, a Pakistan national who had infiltrated into the Valley in 2014.

The officials said the NIA probe would look into the conspiracy angle and ascertain how such a dreaded terrorist managed to get favourable orders from doctors and the jail authorities for his shifting to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital for treatment.

The NIA has already taken the custody of five accused in connection with Jatt’s escape from Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital. The five accused were nabbed by the J&K Police on February 8, two days after Jatt escaped from the hospital. Jatt had managed to escape after at least two other militants attacked a police escort team at the hospital, where he was brought in for treatment.

All the five accused — Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Mohammed Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammed Ganai — are residents of Pulwama in south Kashmir. According to the police, Bhat is believed to be one of the masterminds of the escape plan and his motorcycle was used for it.

Khan is alleged to have provided his car for taking Jatt out of the city, the police said. Jatt is believed to be hiding in the Pulwama area, they said.

Shafi, who is from Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar city, had posed as a patient to provide cover for the escape of terrorists. — PTI