NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will file a chargesheet in the Pahalgam terror attack case before a special court in Jammu on Monday, officials said.The probe agency’s investigation has found the direct involvement of three terrorists in the April 22 attack, in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed by Pakistan-based terrorists in Pahalgam’s Baisaran area.
Earlier in June, the NIA arrested two men for allegedly harbouring the three terrorists. The accused, identified as Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar of Batkote and Bashir Ahmad Jothar of Pahalgam, are accused of providing food, shelter and logistical support to the attackers, officials said.During questioning, the two men disclosed that the attackers were Pakistani nationals linked to the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The three terrorists were later killed by security forces in an encounter on July 28 on the outskirts of Srinagar under operation code-named “Operation Mahadev”.The April 22 strike at Baisaran was the deadliest terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since the 2019 Pulwama attack. In response to the attack, Indian armed forces carried out precision strikes on May 7 under “Operation Sindoor“, targeting terror hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The operation hit nine locations, including headquarters and training centres of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed, from where terror attacks against India were planned and directed.
