New Delhi: Nearly a month after three Kashmiri youth, including Zakir Musa’s cousin Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt, were arrested by the Punjab Police and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police, the case is being transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The premier agency had earlier written to Ministry of Home Affairs to take over the investigation. The agency will re-register the FIR as case number 34 this year.
The NIA will also probe whether there has been a planned conspiracy to fuel “Referendum 2020” campaign, where Kashmiri group was planning to collaborate with Khalistani militants to carry out attacks in the country.
Zakir Musa is on the “most wanted list” and currently head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). Sources said Musa, who has a handful of men, has been lying low after his men were killed in a spate of encounters. Musa however, may have been trying to tie up with the t group in Punjab to fuel anti-India activity and carry out attacks.
So far, four persons have been arrested after a joint operation of Punjab Police and SOG. Sohail Ahmad Bhat, who was arrested from South Kashmir and three students, who were taken into custody from a college hostel in Jalandhar, had assisted the militants getting weapons from Kashmir in a bid to launch an attack in New Delhi on the directions of Zakir Musa.
Four accused, identified as Zahid Gulzar, Mohammed Idris Shah alias Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt and Sohail Ahmad Bhat, had done their schooling from Senior High School, Noorpura Tral in Pulwama district of Kashmir.
Sohail, the main accused, was assisted by three others in picking up the weapon consignment, which was brought from Amritsar on October 7. The consignment had first been shifted to Amritsar from Pulwama and then Jalandhar. It was to be further transported to New Delhi.
