Undertrial in Pulwama terror attack case shifted to Jammu GMCH from Kishtwar jail

JAMMU: Bilal Ahmed Kuchay — a 27-year-old undertrial prisoner involved in the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on Feb 14, 2019 — was shifted from Kishtwar District Jail to Jammu GMCH’s ICU early Tuesday after he developed health complications. The 27-year-old suffers from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition wherein the body's immune system attacks the nerves, causing weakness, numbness or paralysis.

NIA had arrested Bilal, a sawmill owner, in July 2020 for his links with the Pulwama attack and booked him under relevant sections of the law, including UAPA. A native of Hajibaal-Lalhar, Kakapora, in Pulwama district, Bilal was the seventh accused arrested in the case. He had sheltered terrorists in his house, allowing them to use it as a hideout. He also provided terrorists with high-end cell phones to contact their Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad handlers. One of these cell phones was used by suicide bomber Adil Ahmed Dar to record a video of the ‘fidayeen’ attack, the agency said. Bilal was also known to Shakir Bashir Magrey, accused of conducting reconnaissance for the Pulwama attack and the first person to be arrested in the case, claimed NIA.

Bilal’s condition started worsening late Sunday and he was admitted to Kishtwar District Hospital twice since then, before being referred to Jammu for specialised treatment around 9.30pm Monday. After his second hospitalisation, jail authorities took him back to prison and arranged for an ambulance to bring him to Jammu GMCH, despite the high-security grid in the region following Union home minister Amit Shah’s poll rallies in Kishtwar-Doda-Ramban districts earlier that day, ahead of the J&K assembly elections starting Sept 18. Bilal reached Jammu GMCH around 4am Tuesday.

On Feb 14, 2019, Adil Ahmed Dar alias ‘Waqas Commando’, an alleged JeM cadre, rammed an explosives-laden SUV into a bus — that was part of a 78-vehicle convoy carrying over 2,500 CRPF personnel on their way from Jammu to Srinagar — at Lethapora in Pulwama district.

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