NIA files chargesheet in connection with attacks on Jalandhar police station

The NIA filed a chargesheet against two Kashmiri men in connection with grenade attacks at a police station in Maqsudan, Jalandhar last year, officials said Monday.

In the four attacks that took place on September 14, 2018, one police personnel had sustained splinter injuries, they said.

The agency had arrested Fazil Bashir Pinchoo and Shahid Quyoom, the residents of Jammu and Kashmir's Awantipora, on November 8, 2018, they said.

An NIA spokesperson said the two had carried out the attacks with Rouf Ahmed Mir and Ummer Ramzan to wage a war against India and further the conspiracy to destabilise the law and order situation in Punjab.

"While Pinchoo and Quyoom were studying at St Soldiers Institute, Jalandhar, Rouf Ahmed Mir and Ummer Ramzan had travelled from Awantipora to Jalandhar on September 13, 2018 to take part in the attack," he said.

Probe revealed that the four had allegedly targeted Maqsudan police station with Amir Nazir Mir and Rasik Ahmed Mir under a conspiracy by Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), led by its self-styled chief Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, to target security installations in the country, he said.

"All the accused persons are cadres of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), a Kashmir-based terrorist outfit with a Pan-Islamic ideology," the spokesperson said.

The NIA alleged Bashir and Quyoom had collected four hand grenades from an unknown cadre of AGH near Verka Plant, Jalandhar on September 9, 2018.

On September 13, 2018, Rauf Ahmed Mir and Ummer Ramzan travelled from Kashmir to Chandigarh on a private airlines flight and to Jalandhar by road, the NIA alleged.

They did a recce of potential targets on September 13 itself and after selecting the police station building, attacked it at around 7:5 pm on September 14, 2018.

After the attack, they left for Kashmir, the spokesperson said.

Three accused, Rouf Ahmed Mir, Ramzan and Rasik Ahmed Mir, were killed during an encounter between the AGH cadres and security forces on December 22, 2018 at Arampora village in Awantipora, he said