Patna: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has obtained an extension of judicial custody of two Kashmiri men who were arrested in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack. This extension gives the NIA more time to file a charge sheet against the accused.
The agency told a Jammu court Friday that forensic analysis of mobile phones seized from Pahalgam terrorists killed in the Dachigam forest in July had revealed Facebook account details, photographs and Aadhaar cards, which it said were “incriminating” materials against the two local residents.
Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar were arrested in June under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They had allegedly provided at least three Pakistani terrorists involved in the Pahalgam terror attack with food, shelter and logistical support in the days leading up to the massacre.
The NIA, which had taken over the case from the Jammu & Kashmir Police days after the Pahalgam attack, obtained an extension beyond the 135 days the two men have already spent in judicial custody.
The agency has also received a forensic report regarding DNA matching of a piece of evidence recovered from the site of the attack, and is awaiting similar reports for 19 other exhibits. An NIA officer has been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh to expedite the process, the agency told the court.
The agency sought the extension—from 135 days to 180 days—based on four grounds, including pending laboratory reports and recording statements of key witnesses.
In its plea, the agency submitted that evidence gathered after the Dachigam encounter is yet to be extracted and analysed, and devices seized from the terrorists killed in Dachigam terrorists were end-to-end encrypted and a judicial opinion is awaited on the steps forward.
In a joint operation of the Indian Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police on 28 July, three foreign terrorists named Suleiman, Afghan and Jibran were killed in the Dachigam forest near Srinagar. Suleiman was named as a commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while both Afghan and Jibran were referred to as Grade A category terrorists.
“All three terrorists behind the Pahalgam terror attack have now been killed,” Shah had told the Parliament.
The agency also told the court Friday that data needs to be extracted from devices seized from the slain terrorists to identify the networks of foreign facilitators, encrypted backups, VPN partners, as well as other secret operatives of the terror outfit, The Resistance Front.
An offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, the TRF took responsibility for the Pahalgam attack but quickly backtracked in the face of backlash and outrage over the gruesome nature of the civilian killings.
“Resulting disclosures will require further custodial examination of the arrested accused,” the agency submitted in the plea.
The agency also submitted to the court that several essential laboratory findings, including forensic laboratory tests of arms, ammunition, bomb components, and electronic devices, as well as ballistic linkage, proximity marker analysis, DNA co-matching, and IED composition evaluation results, are still pending.
“Post receipt, confrontation of the accused with these forensic facts is necessary,” the agency submitted.
In its plea seeking an extension of the investigation period, the agency also highlighted the necessity of recording statements from additional witnesses in the neighbourhood of Baisaran. These additional testimonies, the agency argued, would prove essential in establishing the chronology of the event, including the period of harbouring of attackers, identification of teams which carried out reconnaissance of the meadows where the massacre took place, as well as unearthing the local support and logistics chain of the TRF.
“These statements must be recorded under court-backed procedure and safeguards in accordance with law to avoid intimidation or influence,” the agency submitted.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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