Jammu: A court in J&K’s Jammu city on Monday granted a five-day remand on the application of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for the two accused arrested by the agency for harbouring terrorists, who carried out the Pahalgam terror attack.
NIA sources said that a local court on Monday granted NIA a five-day remand of two accused who were arrested for harbouring the Pakistani terrorists behind the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
The two men, Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar from Batkote, Pahalgam, and Bashir Ahmad Jothar of Hill Park, Pahalgam, were arrested by NIA on Sunday in the first major breakthrough in the investigations into the attack that left 26 persons, including 25 tourists and a local Pony owner dead and16 others injured on April 22.
According to the NIA, the arrested accused have disclosed the identities of the three armed terrorists involved in the attack and have also confirmed that they were Pakistani nationals affiliated with the banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The two accused were produced in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Jammu, Ritesh Kumar Dubey, and were sent to NIA custody for five days till June 27.
Parvaiz and Bashir had knowingly harboured the three armed terrorists at a seasonal dhok (hut) at Hill Park, Pahalgam, before the attack, according to NIA investigations.
The two men had provided food, shelter and logistical support to the terrorists, who had selectively killed the tourists on the basis of their religious identity, making it one of the most gruesome terrorist attacks ever, the agency said.
The terror attack carried out by Pakistan-backed LeT terrorists in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam outraged the entire country.
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave a free hand to the armed forces to avenge the Pahalgam attack. Indian armed forces carried out target-specific strikes at terror infrastructure in Muridke near Lahore, Bahawalpur and Kotli, and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Pakistan retaliated by heavy mortar shelling on civilian facilities in Poonch, Rajouri, Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts.
Eighteen civilians, 13 of them in Poonch district, were killed in Pakistani shelling.
Scores of homes, shops, a Gurudwara, a temple and a Church were also destroyed in Pakistan mortar shelling in Poonch district.
(IANS)
