New Delhi: “Mazhab nahi sikhata aapas mein bair rakhna, Hindi hain hum, watan hai Hindostan hamara,” (Religion does not teach us to harbour enmity among ourselves; we are Indians, and India is our homeland),” an NIA special judge in Punjab’s Mohali cited this famous verse by poet Muhammad Iqbal as he convicted and sentenced three Kashmiri men in a case linked to terror group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH).
In the 4 June order, special judge Dinesh Kumar Wadhwa sentenced Zahid Gulzar, Mohammad Idrish Shah and Yasir Rafiq Bhat to prison for 10 years for waging war against the government, possession and concealment of prohibited arms, ammunition and explosive substances in Punjab, and conspiracy as members of a terrorist gang.
The judge said the three would have benefited from adhering to the constitutional values of secularism and fraternity by remembering the immortal words of Iqbal. No religion, the court added, in its “true essence” advocates hatred and violence, but only the “extremist distortion and misinterpretation of religious teaching” leads individuals away from peaceful coexistence and the values of humanity.
At the same time, the court acquitted the fourth accused, Suhail Ahmed Bhat, saying the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had “miserably failed” in proving the allegations that he was the main contact point for Zakir Musa, the founder of the now-defunct AGuH, and that he acted as a recruiter for the group.
The three Kashmiri students were arrested by a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Punjab Police from the hostel of Jalandhar’s CT Institute of Engineering, Management and Technology in October 2018. According to the NIA, they were part of a conspiracy to carry out multiple attacks in Punjab.
Police said that Rafiq Bhat, identified as a cousin of Zakir Musa, guided the other two accused, Zahid Gulzar and Idrish Shah, in receiving arms from Amritsar and handed over Rs 1,000 for their travel expenses days before their arrest.
Police also arrested Suhail Ahmed Bhat separately on charges of recruiting cadres for AGuH and conducting reconnaissance for attacks.
Musa founded AGuH as a Kashmir-based affiliate of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent after walking out of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) in July 2017. He was killed in an encounter in May 2019.
Another terrorist Hameed Lelhari alias Haroon Abbas took over the leadership of the outfit. Lelhari was also killed in an encounter in October 2019, prompting the then Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh to declare that the outfit was “wiped out” of the Valley.
The outfit came into focus once again last year, when members of a terror module detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED)-laden car outside Delhi’s Red Fort in November. The blast killed 15 people.
Separate probes by the NIA and the Jammu & Kashmir State Investigation Agency have revealed that the module comprising several highly-educated individuals was trying to revive the AGuH, which had become defunct after the elimination of its last chief.
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‘Seek pardon from Allah’
In its chargesheet before the special court in Mohali, the NIA alleged that Musa conspired with Suhail Ahmed Bhat and Yasir Rafiq Bhat in the first half of 2018 to carry out multiple attacks at important installations in Punjab to destabilise the law and order situation.
As part of their plan, the agency alleged, Suhail motivated Zahid Gulzar to join AGuH and to “carry out jihad against India to establish Islamic Rule in India”. It added that consequently, Zahid joined the outfit.
The agency alleged that Musa instructed Suhail to collect a consignment of explosives from Gurdaspur in Punjab. As part of the plan, Suhail facilitated direct communication between Musa and Zahid by sharing their Telegram IDs.
Zahid collected the consignment of explosives from Gurdaspur on 3 August 2018 after Musa allegedly shared the details of the place from where he had to collect the weapon consignment. His companion in the task went on to become a star witness in the case taken up by the NIA.
Musa, according to the NIA, approached Zahid with similar instructions and a task of carrying out a grenade attack on Jalandhar’s Maqsudan police station in the last week of August.
However, Zahid expressed his inability to carry out the attack since he was at his home in Pulwama at the time. Then Musa chose members of a different module—such as Fazil Bashir, Shahid Quyoom, Rauf Ahmed Mir and Ummer Ramzar—through mediator Amir for the attack on 14 September 2018.
Zahid received similar instructions from Musa in the first week of October 2018 to collect a weapon consignment from Amritsar, the location for which was shared by Musa on Telegram, the NIA chargesheet mentioned.
As part of the plan, Zahid and Idrish Shah collected the consignment—one AK rifle, two magazines, and 54 live rounds—on 7 October 2018. Both consignments were seized by the Punjab Police from room number 94 of the CT Engineering College during raids on 10 October 2018.
Appearing for the NIA, Special Public Prosecutor Lokesh Narang argued that the evidence collected first by the Punjab Police raiding team and subsequent probe by the NIA established beyond doubt the role of the accused in the terror conspiracy and collection of arms for the purpose.
The NIA investigation revealed that Yasir was in constant touch with his cousin, Zakir Musa, and used to discuss several issues with him, including spotting talent at his college to bring them on board with the plan.
The investigation also revealed that Yasir further spread the AGuH ideology by sharing radical content about jihad and clashes with security forces among fellow Kashmiri students at the college. He used to collect those propaganda materials from the Telegram channel, ‘Al-Hur Media’.
The special judge said that investigators found photographs of arms and ammunition consignments collected by Zahid Gulzar and Idrish Shah from Amritsar on Yasir Rafiq Bhat’s phone.
According to the NIA probe, Yasir Rafiq Bhat was involved in the collection of arms, ammunition, and explosives “on the directions of AGuH chief Zakir Musa for carrying out unlawful activities in Punjab State and thereby waging war against India”.
Based on the statement of a protected witness who accompanied Zahid to Amritsar to pick up the arms consignment, the judge observed that Zahid used the codeword “aloo” for grenades and discussed “bringing aloo” from Amritsar.
Referring to the statement, the judge said the accused used to speak in Kashmiri, and the phrase ‘Amish lagao aloo’ means “throw a grenade on that person”. The witness said that Zahid Gulzar told him to get ‘aloo’ from Amritsar in a message, but he refused to carry out his request.
When he refused, Zahid sent him a message: “Mujse keo mafi mangte ho, Allah to mafi mango” (Why do you ask pardon from me, seek pardon from Allah).
A series of ‘miserable’ failures
The judge, however, acquitted the fourth accused, Suhail, identifying holes in the prosecution’s case against him. The court found that the prosecution could not produce material to back their claims that he was working directly on Musa’s instructions and influencing others to join the outfit.
The court said that the agency “miserably failed” in proving any of the allegations against Suhail.
“So far, the accusation against accused Suhail Ahmed Bhat is concerned, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the same against him,” special judge Wadhwa observed.
“First of all, the prosecution has alleged that the accused Suhail Ahmed Bhatt was the kingpin of Zakir Musa, the head of AGuH, and he was the recruiting agent of AGuH by influencing the youth to follow the agenda of AGuH for establishing Islamic rule in India.”
He added that none of the protected witnesses revealed that Suhail Ahmed Bhat “made any influence upon them to join the ideology of AGuH”.
Moreover, the court observed that the prosecution failed to place on record any exchange of text or Telegram messages between Musa and Suhail, and that the phone calls between him and the convicted trio could not be presumed to be incriminating.
“The prosecution has not shown any data retrieved from the mobile phones of the accused Zahid and Suhail, which may suggest that they were in communication with Zakir Musa,” it said.
The court also rebuked the NIA for not being able to prove even the recovery of the laptop that it claimed contained materials related to terrorist activities.
“There are allegations that accused Suhail Ahmed had informed Zahid Gulzar through a telephonic message regarding the instruction of Zakir Musa. However, there is no evidence on the record to show the connection of accused Suhail Ahmed with Zakir Musa through any communication channel,” the court said.
“As per the prosecution case, that laptop of accused Suhail Ahmed was found to contain the material related to terrorist activities. The prosecution has miserably failed to prove that any laptop of Suhail Ahmed was recovered from his possession,” it added.
It said the lack of evidence against Suhail did not cast doubt on the case against the other three, whom it held guilty of concealment of arms, ammunition and explosives at two sites near Gurdaspur and near Amritsar, and transporting them to Jalandhar.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)