Civilians killing in J&K’s Rajouri: NIA arrest 2 accused for allegedly helping terrorists

New Delhi, September 2

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The anti-terror federal probe agency NIA on Saturday said it has arrested two accused for allegedly harbouring terrorists, who had killed seven innocent civilians in Dhangri village of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district early this year.

In an official statement, the NIA said Nisar Ahmed, alias ‘Haji Nisar’, and Mushtaq Hussain, both of whom “are presently lodged in Central Jail Kot Bhalwal (Jammu)” in another case, were formally arrested by the NIA on Thursday.

The agency said they were produced before the Special NIA Court, Jammu, on Friday and have been remanded in NIA custody for 12 days.

Five persons were killed when terrorists fired indiscriminately on members of the minority community at Dhangri village on January 1.

Two more persons were killed and several others injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which was left behind by the terrorists before fleeing the village, exploded.

The NIA said, “During the course of investigations a team of the agency’s officials camped for quite some time in the hilly terrain of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts of J&K and examined a large number of suspicious entities and later zeroed in on the two accused, who had provided logistics support to the terrorists for more than two months.”

The case was initially registered at Police Station, Rajouri, under various Aections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act and later the NIA re-registered its case for further probe on January 13.

“They had provided logistics support to the terrorists for more than two months and had sheltered them in a hideout, constructed by them on the directions of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) handlers namely Saifullah alias Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi and Mohd Qasim,” the NIA alleged.