Jammu, January 21: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) have arrested a juvenile for harbouring terrorists involved in the killing of seven civilians in Dhangri village of district Rajouri of Jammu and Kashmir in January last year.
The juvenile/CCL was incidentally lodged at Observation Home, R.S.Pura, Jammu in some other case, registered at Police Station Gursai, Mendhar in Poonch district. He was taken into custody yesterday by the NIA and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, Rajouri, for remand.
The said terrorist attack had taken place on January 1-2, 2023, in which five persons belonging to the minority Hindu community were killed and several seriously injured. Two more civilians later succumbed to their injuries.
The case was initially registered as FIR no. 01/2023 at PS Rajouri u/s 302/ 307 /120-B/452/323 of IPC, sections 13/16/18 of UA (P) Act 1967 and sections 7/27 of Arms Act. NIA had taken over and re-registered the case on 13th January.
Investigations by the NIA had revealed that the apprehended juvenile, along with two other earlier arrested persons namely Nisar Ahmed @ Haji Nisar and Mushtaq Hussain @ Chacha, was involved in harbouring the terrorists who had carried out the horrendous attack. Nisar Ahmed and Mushtaq Hussain were arrested by the NIA on 31st August 2023, and are presently lodged at Central Jail, Kot Bhalwal, Jammu.
The duo had provided logistic support to the terrorists for more than two months and had sheltered them in a hideout which they had constructed on the directions of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) handlers, namely Saifullah @ Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal @ Qatal Sindhi and Mohd. Qasim.
A team of NIA officials had regularly camped in the hilly terrain of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts of J & K in search of actual perpetrators of the offence during the course of investigations. The team examined a large number of suspicious entities and later zeroed in on the above-mentioned accused persons who had provided logistic support to the terrorists.
Investigations in the case are still under process.
