NIA expected to file charge sheet in Pahalgam terror case today

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is set to file a charge sheet on Monday in connection with the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people, most of them tourists, were killed earlier this year, officials said.

The charge sheet will be submitted before a special court of the National Investigation Agency in Jammu, following an investigation that established the direct involvement of three Pakistan-based terrorists in the 22 April attack.

Investigators said two men were arrested in June for sheltering and assisting the attackers. The accused — Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar of Batkote and Bashir Ahmad Jothar of Pahalgam — allegedly provided food, accommodation and logistical support to the militants.

During questioning, the two men identified the assailants as Pakistani nationals linked to the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, officials said.

The three militants were later killed in an encounter with security forces on 28 July in an operation codenamed “Operation Mahadev” on the outskirts of Srinagar. According to the agency, they had been hiding in the Dachigam–Harwan forest belt since carrying out the attack.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam killings, Indian armed forces launched retaliatory precision strikes on 7 May against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under “Operation Sindoor”. The operation targeted nine locations, including headquarters and training facilities linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, from where attacks against India were allegedly planned and directed.

Officials said the filing of the charge sheet marks a key step in the legal process against those accused of facilitating one of the deadliest terror attacks in the region in recent years.

With PTI inputs