2019 Pulwama terror attack accused dies of heart attack in Jammu hospital
On February 14, 2019, 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir.
2019 Pulwama terror attack: The 32-year-old man chargesheeted in the deadly terror attack on a CRPF convoy in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 has died of a heart attack at a hospital in Jammu, said officials. The accused Bilal Ahmad Kuchey of Hajibal village in Kakapora was among 19 people formally charged in the case.
Bilal Ahmad Kuchey was hospitalised to hospital on Sept 17
According to officials, the accused was admitted to hospital after he fell sick at the Kishtwar district jail on September 17. Kuchey died on Monday night due to a heart attack.
Kuchey along with 18 other accused were chargesheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on August 25, 2020. He was among the seven accused arrested in the case. He and the other accused Shakir Bashir, Insha Jan and Peer Tariq Ahmad Shah had provided logistics and harboured the JeM terrorists in their homes.
The NIA had filed a chargesheet under various sections of the Ranbir Penal Code, Arms Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Foreigners Act and the J&K Public Property (Prevention of Damages) Act.
What happened on February 14, 2019 in Pulwama?
Pulwama terror attack has been one of the worst terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans. The attack followed massive protests, candlelight marches and bandhs across the country, where people came to the streets to demand justice for those killed in the attack.
At nearly 3:15 pm on February 14, 2019, a convoy of CRPF jawans was hit by an explosives-laden SUV on the Srinagar-Jammu highway. The attack, which was reported near Awantipora resulted in the death of 40 CRPF jawans, while many others were left injured. The Pulwama terror attack also raised questions on the security system of Jammu and Kashmir.
The attack was later claimed by Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The attacker was identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, a local from Pulwama district, and a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed. They also released a video of the assailant Adil Ahmad Dar, a 22-year old from Kakapora who had joined the group a year earlier.
The attack was condemned by Pakistan, however, Imran Khan bluntly denied any involvement in the incident, though Jaish-e-Mohammed's leader Masood Azhar is known to operate in Pakistan. While six terrorists, including three Pakistanis, involved in the terror attack were killed in separate encounters, six more, including JeM founder Masood Azhar are still at large.
How India avenged Pulwama terror attack
On 26 February, 12 Mirage 2000 jets of the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and dropped bombs into Balakot, Pakistan. India claimed that it attacked a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp and killed a large number of terrorists, reported to be between 300 and 350. Pakistan's military, the first to announce the airstrike on the morning of February 26, described the Indian planes as dropping their payload in an uninhabited wooded hilltop area near Balakot.
The following day, February 27, Pakistan shot down an Indian warplane. The Imran Khan-led country also took Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman captive for 60 hours. Varthaman was conferred the Vir Chakra gallantry award in August 2019.
Subsequently, within a year, almost all the conspirators, including one Qari Yasir, the self-styled chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group, behind the terror attack were killed.
According to the NIA, the Pulwama attack was the result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the Pakistan-based leadership of the terrorist organisation. JeM leaders have been sending their cadres to the camps of Al-Qaeda-Taliban-JeM and Haqqani-JeM in Afghanistan to be trained in explosives and other terror tactics, the NIA said.
(With PTI inputs)
Also Read: Pakistani intruder arrested by Indian Army along LoC in J-K’s Poonch