Whiff of Pak-based LeT handlers’ involvement in Reasi terror attack: NIA

The NIA’s interrogation of an accused arrested for the Reasi bus attack last month has pointed towards the role of Pakistan-based handlers of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, officials have said.

Nine persons were killed and 41 injured on June 9 when terrorists opened fire on a 53-seater bus, which was carrying pilgrims from Shiv Khori temple to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra, causing it to veer off the road and fall into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi.

At least 3 terrorists involved

National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials said at least three terrorists could have been involved in the attack. Interrogation of Hakam Khan alias Hakin Din has revealed that he provided shelter, logistics, and food to the terrorists, they said.

Khan also allegedly helped the terrorists conduct a recce of the area and even accompanied them, the officials said, adding that the terrorists involved in the attack stayed with Khan on at least three occasions since June 1.

Based on details provided by Khan, the NIA on June 30 searched five locations linked with hybrid terrorists and their overground workers.

Pakistan-based LeT commanders

Khan’s interrogation has also pointed towards the role of two Pakistan-based LeT commanders — Saifullah alias Sajid Jutt and Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi — who might have acted as the attackers’ handlers, the official said.

This aspect is being further verified, the official added.

The NIA took over the investigation into the case on June 15 orders from the Union Home Ministry.

Old suspects

LeT commanders Jutt and Qatal have also been named in a charge sheet filed this year by the NIA in connection with its probe related to the attack on civilians in J-K’s Rajouri district in 2023.

Seven persons were killed and several injured when terrorists attacked Dhangri village in Rajouri on January 1, 2023. While five civilians were killed in firing by terrorists, two lost their lives in an IED blast the next day.

The NIA said it was yet to ascertain any common angle in the recent terror attacks carried out in Jammu and Kashmir.

Common angle with Poonch attack?

The probe agency has also decided to register a case to investigate last year’s terror attack on an Army convoy in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch that left five personnel dead.

The probe will look to ascertain any “common angle” in last year’s attack with the recent terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said, adding the involvement of Pakistan-based handlers in the case cannot be ruled out.

Five Army personnel lost their lives and another was seriously injured after their vehicle caught fire following a terrorist attack on April 20, 2023, in the Bhata Dhurian area under Poonch district.

NIA to probe Kathua attack

The NIA on Tuesday (July 9) also dispatched a team of its officers to assist the Jammu and Kashmir police in its probe into the terrorist attack on an Army convoy in Kathua on Monday.

Five Army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer, were killed, and as many were injured when a group of heavily armed terrorists ambushed a patrolling party on the rugged Machedi-Kindli-Malhar mountainous road near the Badnota village in Lohai Malhar, approximately 150 km from the Kathua district's headquarters.

This was the fifth terror attack in the Jammu region within a month.

(With agency inputs)