In a significant development, the Centre has appointed Karambir Singh Nalwa as Special Public Prosecutor to spearhead the trial in the Pahalgam terror attack case, marking the first anniversary of the deadly incident.
The Centre has appointed noted lawyer Karambir Singh Nalwa as Special Public Prosecutor to lead the trial in Pahalgam terror attack case, which claimed the lives of 25 tourists and a local pony operator on April 22 last year.
The development comes on the first anniversary of the deadly terror attack.
In an order notified on Wednesday, the Union Home Ministry said it exercised the powers under the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 to appoint senior advocate Nalwa as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for conducting trial and other matters related to the case on behalf of the agency in NIA special court, Jammu and the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
The appointment is for a period of three years or till the completion of trial of the case or till the satisfaction of NIA with the performance of the SPP, whichever is earlier, it said.
The NIA had filed a comprehensive chargesheet against six people and two terrorist organisations, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and its shadow outfit TRF, in connection with the terror attack.
The agency traced the deep conspiracy to Pakistan, which the probe agency said has been "unabatedly sponsoring terrorism against India".
The NIA has named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) headed by Hafeez Saeed, who has been designated as a global terrorist by the US as well as India, along with The Resistance Front (TRF) headed by Habibullah Malik alias Sajid Jatt, in the chargesheet for their role in planning, facilitating, and executing the Pahalgam attack that took place in the Baisaran meadows on April 22 last year.
"Pakistani handler terrorist Sajid Jatt is also named as an accused in the chargesheet, filed before the NIA special court, Jammu," a statement issued by the anti-terror agency had said.
The chargesheet also names the three Pakistani terrorists, who carried out the killings on religious lines in Pahalgam.
All the three were killed by the Army during the Operation Mahadev at Dachigam located in the outskirts of Srinagar on July 29, almost 100 days after the deadly terror attack.
The three were identified as Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani, the NIA had said.
Two accused persons, Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who were arrested on June 22 last year for harbouring the terrorists, have also been named in the chargesheet by the NIA.