NIA court discharges Kashmiri student held for terror attack

MOHALI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mohali discharged a

Kashmiri student

arrested in connection with the Jalandhar terror attack. Special NIA judge Nirbhow Singh Gill issued Danish Rehman Sofi’s release order on Monday.


Danish was arrested on October 19, 2018, a week after Punjab Police and special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir Police busted a terror module in Jalandhar with the arrest of four Kashmiri students allegedly linked to the Kashmiri terror outfit, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH).

Three Kashmiri students — Zahid Gulzar, Mohammed Idris Shah alias Nadeem, and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt — were arrested on October 10, 2018 from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology at Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar. Two weapons, including an assault rifle, and explosives were recovered from them. Fourth Kashmiri student, Sohail Ahmed Bhatt, was arrested on October 11, 2018. Sohail, who was also a student in Jalandhar, was picked up for assisting the three arrested students in picking up the weapon consignment from Amritsar on October 7, 2018.

Danish, from Awantipura in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was a third year B Tech student of Universal Group of Institutions, Lalru, Mohali, and used to stay in Dera Bassi. He was the fifth Kashmiri student to be arrested in the case as he was believed to be a close aide of Sohail Ahmed Bhatt. He was arrested from Jammu and Kashmir Sources in NIA said that Danish and the other four accused were schoolmates and had done their schooling in Senior High School, Noorpura, Pulwama.

The NIA had earlier filed chargesheet against the accused and had mentioned it did not find any evidence of Danish’s involvement in the case. The chargesheet said that the

NIA court

could drop the charges against Danish filed by the police as there was no evidence against him.

The police had claimed Danish shared good relations with the AGH head, Zakir Rashid Bhat, better known as Zakir Musa, and that he had knowledge about the activities of the four arrested students and the supply of weapons.

Danish has been discharged of all the sections he was arrested — 121 (waging or attempting to wage war against the country and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Arms Act and the Explosives Act, according to the judge’s order.

The NIA has refused to divulge details about the case against the remaining four students arrested in the case before Danish.

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