Terror conspiracy case: NIA files chargesheet against Masood Azhar's aide, another person

Two persons, including the right-hand man of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) Chief Masood Azhar, have been charged by the NIA for their alleged intentions to target security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir in order to disrupt peace and communal harmony, officials said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the National Investigation Agency said Muhammad Dilawar Iqbal, a resident of Abbaspur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir goes by several aliases including Maaz Khan Kashmiri and Azad Kashmiri and is a close associate of Masood Azhar.

He delivered incendiary speeches to incite youths in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to conduct terrorist acts, the statement added.

The NIA has alleged that Dilwar Iqbal indoctrinated and motivated Kupwara-resident Mohammed Ubaid Malik also to join the JeM.

The agency has alleged that Dilwar Iqbal was motivating Kashmiri youths as part of a larger conspiracy hatched by proscribed terrorist organisations and their affiliates to carry out terrorist acts and activities in the region.

“Dilwar would incite youth having a militancy background to pursue Jihad by sharing with them inflammatory audio clips and videos as well as images of Maulana Masood Azhar Alvi, showing the latter preaching radical Islam. He would also send videos related to encounters in the Kashmir valley and would provoke the youth to pick up arms,” an NIA spokesperson said.

The agency has been probing the terror conspiracy case since June 21, 2022 which it took on suo motu basis. The case pertains to the conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations to “unleash violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms, etc” to carry out terrorist attacks and violence in the Union Territory.

“It involves radicalization of local youth and mobilization of overground workers of newly floated terrorist groups, such as The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF and others. These outfits are affiliated to proscribed terrorist outfits like Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, etc,” the agency has alleged.

With inputs from agencies