Srinagar, July 02: National Investigation Agency (NIA) Wednesday said that it has arrested one more accused in the last year’s Lethpora, Pulwama attack case in which 40 CRPF men were killed. The arrested person has been identified as Muhammad Iqbal Rather, 25, a resident of Charar-e-Shareef Budgam.
Fhe statement said that the Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, the JeM militant and a key conspirator in the case, after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April, 2018, from the National Highway near International border to South Kashmir.
“Muhammad Umar Farooq, along with others, had assembled the IED used in the attack. Rather had been undergoing judicial custody since September, 2018 in another Jaish-e-Mohammed related case investigated by NIA. As such, he was produced by the Jail authorities before the NIA Special Court, Jammu today and was taken into seven day’s NIA custody for his interrogation,” the statement said, adding that “Initial examination has revealed that Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications. Rather was part of the ‘transportation module’ of Jaish-e-Mohammed militant organisation.”
The statement said that with the fresh arrest, NIA has so far arrested six accused persons in this case. “Investigation in this case is in progress,” the statement said.
