The National Investigative Agency has filed a chargesheet against Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, who was arrested in Kashmir in July last year, alleging that he was working for terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba and was planning to carry out attacks at several places including Delhi.
The agency has filed the chargesheet under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, sections of Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, Foreigners Act and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act against Ali, who has been in judicial custody since August.
According to court sources, the chargesheet, filed before District Judge Amar Nath, claimed that the recent unrest in Kashmir Valley had been orchestrated by Pakistan-based LeT.
The agency claimed that since summer last year, the banned outfit, with the “help of Pakistani forces deployed on the border”, pushed heavily armed terrorists into India with a direction to mix with local people, create disturbance and attack police and security forces.
NIA, in its charge sheet, has also alleged that along with his associates, Ali had planned terror attacks to destabilise the security and sovereignty of India.
The pocket diary recovered from Ali, among other things, contains the names of several towns in Jammu and Kashmir besides Delhi, the chargesheet claims.
It alleged that given the fact that Bahadur Ali is a trained cadre of the LeT, the inclusion of the names of these towns/cities in the diary indicates that Ali was tasked to carry out terror attacks at several places, including Delhi.
A special court had on December 19 extended the judicial custody of Ali till January 18.
A fourth-class dropout, Ali, who hails from Jahama village of Raiwind in Lahore, was arrested from village Yahama in Mawar area of Qalamabad, Handwara, in North Kashmir on July 25. The army had claimed to have recovered three AK-47 rifles, two pistols and Rs 23,000 in Indian currency from his possession.
According to NIA, Ali was trained at a Lashkar camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to carry out various activities, including map reading and operating GPS devices.
NIA alleged that Ali was part of the conspiracy hatched by Lashkar-e-Tayiba, a proscribed terrorist organisation, based in Pakistan, to commit terror attacks in India.
It said that a thorough probe found that LeT has set up a well-organised machinery for the recruitment of vulnerable young men from different provinces of Pakistan as part of a conspiracy to wage war against the government of India by committing terrorist acts in various parts of the country.
“Once recruited, these impressionable young men are put through various training regimes with the twin objectives of radicalising their world view and providing them with ‘military’ skills.
“Subsequent to their training, these trained cadres of LeT are illegally pushed into Indian territory where they commit terrorist acts with the help of a network of their supporters and facilitators,” the charge sheet said.
NIA said that as part of LeT’s plan, Ali alias Saifullah Mansoor, along with his two associates Abu Saad and Abu Darda, all trained terrorists, infiltrated into Indian territory equipped with arms and ammunition, navigation equipment, combat material and other articles.
These terrorists entered Indian territory with an intention to carry out terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and at different places of the country including Delhi, as per instructions given to them by their handlers of LeT based in Pakistan and PoK.
“After crossing the LoC fence, the three terrorists walked for about seven days following GRs with the aid of GPS devices, that had been provided to them by Abu Haider at the Mandakuli ‘launching pad’,” NIA said.
Abu Saad had sent a message to one of his handlers, ‘Walid Bhai’ by pairing his mobile phone with his wireless set, a communication technique especially designed by LeT to avoid interception, it said.
On June 22, the two left for getting some food from a village leaving Ali on a hill top. However, both were killed in an encounter and Ali shifted his base to another hillock “as a precautionary measure”.
Next day Ali contacted ‘Alfa-3’, the LeT control station based in PoK, who directed him to continue his journey and reach the final destination where he met his local contact who provided him food and shelter, it said.
Ali, who had established a network around the area, was informed by his control room in PoK that the cadres of Lashkar had been successful in fuelling large-scale agitation in Kashmir after Eid and subsequent to the death of Burhan Wani in Kashmir, NIA said.
He instructed Ali to mix with the protesters and throw grenades at the security forces in order to further fuel the agitation in the Kashmir Valley, the chargesheet said.
