Srinagar, May 22: National Investigation Agency (NIA) Saturday chargesheeted three Hizbul Mujahideen militants in connection with the Kishtwar conspiracy case.

In a statement a spokesman said that NIA filed Charge-Sheet before the NIA Special Court, Jammu against three Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militants namely Jaffer Hussain s/o Mohd. Ashraf Butt r/o Hunjalla,Kishtwar, Tanveer Ahmed Malik s/o Late Jamal Din Malik r/o Village Tantna, Doda, and Taraq Hussain Giri son of Ghulam Hussain, Village Pochhal Kishtwar in RC-08/2019/NIA/JMU.

“Charges will be abated against other three militants involved in the crime namely Osama Bin Javed alias Osama; Haroon Abbas Wani and Zahid Hussain alias Zahid, who have been killed in encounters with Security Forces,” the statement said.

It further said that the case was initially registered as FIR No. 31/2019 dated 08.03.2019 at Police Station Kishtwar, District Kishtwar, J&K relating to the snatching of service weapon of the escort in-charge of DC Kishtwar. NIA had re-registered the case as RC-08/2019/NIA/JMU on 02.11.2019 and taken over the investigation.

“Investigation has revealed that the instant case was one of the several militant acts committed by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen during the years 2018 – 2019 in Kishtwar. The objective of all these acts was to revive militancy in Kishtwar by looting arms and targeting prominent persons of a particular community to create terror among the members of that community,” the statement said.

It said that the accused persons Osama Bin Javed alias Osama, Haroon Abbas Wani alias Haroon and Zahid Hussain alias Zahid were killed in encounters with security forces at different places in the years 2019 and 2020. “They were militants of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) in Doda-kishtwar belt and were involved in many militancy acts in Kishtwar. Accused Jaffer Hussain, Tanveer Ahmed Malik and Taraq Hussain Giri were providing logistics support and organising shelter for the HM militants involved in the multiple militancy incidents,” the statement said. kno