Pulwama IED Attack: One more accused arrested by NIA

SRINAGAR — National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed to have arrested one more accused involved in Pulwama attack on Thursday.

In a statement, NIA said, “In the continuing investigation of the Pulwama attack case in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in an IED blast on 14.02.2019, today (i.e. on 02.07.2020) NIA arrested one more accused namely Mohd. Iqbal Rather (25 yrs.) son of Abdul Khaliq Rather, resident of Futlipura, Charar-e-Shareef, Budgam, Jammu & Kashmir.”

“Mohd. Iqbal Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, the JeM militant and a key conspirator in this case, after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April, 2018 from the National Highway near International border to South Kashmir. Mohd. Umar Farooq, along with others, had assembled the IED used in the attack,” the statement said.

The statement further said that Mohd. Iqbal Rather had been undergoing judicial custody since September, 2018 in another Jaish-e-Mohammed related case investigated by NIA.

“As such, he was produced by the Jail authorities before the NIA Special Court, Jammu today i.e. 02.07.2020, and was taken into 07 day’s NIA custody for his interrogation.”

“Initial examination has revealed that Mohd. Iqbal Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications. Mohd. Iqbal Rather was part of the ‘transportation module’ of Jaish-e-Mohammed militant organisation.”

With this arrest, NIA has so far arrested 06 accused persons in this case. Investigation in this case is in progress.