NEW DELHI: New Delhi’s counter-terrorism agency said Monday (Dec 15) it has filed charges against six people in connection with a deadly attack on tourists in India-administered Kashmir, holding Pakistan responsible for it.
Three of those named are dead, and two are in Indian custody.
The attackers killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, in an April assault which sparked a days-long conflict between the two neighbours.
New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing the attack in the resort town of Pahalgam, claims Islamabad denied.
A shadowy group called The Resistance Front (TRF) initially claimed responsibility for the attack.
The United States has described TRF as a “front and proxy” of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a UN-designated terrorist group based in Pakistan.
The chargesheet from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) “details Pakistan’s conspiracy”.
It also “charged the banned LeT/TRF as a legal entity for its role in planning, facilitating, and executing the Pahalgam attack”, an agency statement said.
The NIA said that “Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt” was also charged, but the agency did not give further details on his location.
The chargesheet also names three other “Pakistani” militants – Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani.
That trio were killed by Indian security forces in a forest in Kashmir weeks after the attack, the agency said.
Two local men, Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothatd, arrested in June on charges of harbouring the attackers, have also been charged, the agency said.
The April 22 killings triggered a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures by the nuclear-armed countries and led to intense exchanges of missile, drone and artillery fire.
The four-day conflict left more than 70 people dead on both sides.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between the South Asian rivals – claimed by both in full – since their independence from British rule in 1947, and the neighbours have fought two wars over its control.
Rebel groups, demanding the divided region’s independence or merger with Pakistan, have waged an insurgency since 1989.
Source: CNA
