NIA files charge sheet against captured Pak terrorist

NIA today filed a charge sheet against Pakistani national Bahadur Ali, suspected to be a member of Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, for allegedly planning to carry out subversive activities in India, including Delhi, at the behest of the banned outfit.
The charge sheet was filed before District Judge Amar Nath here as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had registered a case against Ali, who was arrested on July 24 last year from North Kashmir's border village Yahama.
The charge sheet has also highlighted the gaps along the Line of Control (LoC) as Ali, along with two other terrorists, had been walking for seven days undetected before they reached to their destination. The trio had entered India between the intervening night to June 12 and 13 last year and reached their destination only around June 20.

The area is expected to be dotted by security personnel as part of counter-infiltration grid, official sources said.
According to the NIA charge sheet, investigation has established that Ali, who is a school dropout and originally a resident of Jia Bagga Village of Raiwind in Lahore, Pakistan, was also provided a map sheet depicting parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
He was provided with the grid references (GRs) that had been recovered from his possession. Ali plotted these GRs on the map sheet which was sent for examination to the Surveyor General of India at Dehradun which affirmed that the terrorist had plotted them correctly.

"This clearly establishes that Ali is well conversant with the use of the map sheet and that he has received training in the subject. A GPS device was recovered from the possession of Ali at the time of his arrest.

"The data retrieved from the GPS device contained coordinates of the Mandakuli 'launching pad' of LeT. The pocket diary recovered from Ali, among other things, contains the name of several towns in J&K, like Rafiabad, Kunzar, Tangmarg, Budgam, Poonch, Jammu and Udhampur, besides Delhi.
"Given the fact that Ali is a trained cadre of LeT, the inclusion of the names of these towns or cities in the diary indicates that he was tasked to carry out terror attacks at several places, including in Delhi," the charge sheet said.

NIA also sought an opinion of General Examiner of Questioned Document (GEQD) who had said that his ability to plot GRs on the Google maps and on the topographic sheets after which the agency slapped the charge of waging war against the country on Ali, it said.
NIA has slapped charges under Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Explosives Act, the Explosives Substances Act, Arms Act, the Foreigners Act and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act.
NIA alleged that Ali was part of the conspiracy hatched by
Lashkar-e-Taiba, 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 Lashker had been successful in fuelling large-scale agitation in Kashmir after Eid and subsequent to the death of Burhan Wani in Kashmir, NIA said.
(Reopens LGD16)
However, on July 24 last year, Ali was given a direction to receive a group of freshly infiltrated terrorists of LeT at a particular GR but he was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police before he could receive them.
At the time of his apprehension, one compass, one ICOM wireless set, one matrix sheet bearing codes, two unicode sheets (handwritten pocket diary pages) bearing text written in coded form, Indian currency of value Rs 23,000 (of which 3 notes were found to be fake), one GPS set and one map sheet were recovered from his possession.

During his custodial interrogation, Ali said that he had to receive a group on the instructions of Alfa-3. Based on this information, the police and the army launched a search operation in the area of Bandi Monabal on July 26 and killed four unidentified terrorists after a prolonged gunbattle, NIA said.
Ali also led the police team at a place in Yahama village where he had concealed arms, ammunition and other articles which included one AK-47 rifle, magazine, several rounds of ammunition, hand grenades, ICOM wireless set, it said.
During the investigation, it was found that prior to their infiltration, Ali and his associates, Abu Saad and Abu Darda. were provided codes in the form of nine alphabets, which they were to use to record numerals such as grid references, phone numbers, it said.

Further, an analysis, based on the disclosure of Ali regarding the codes, has established the route taken by him and his associates after they had crossed the LoC, while infiltrating into Indian territory, NIA said.
When plotted on a map, the deciphered grid references clearly trace the infiltration route from the direction of the LoC towards Handwara, a border town in North Kashmir, it said.