Masood Azhar’s associate among 2 men charged by NIA for recruiting terrorists

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against two people including a Pakistani national who radicalised and recruited young Kashmiris to carry out terrorist attacks on security forces and migrant workers, a statement by the federal agency said.

The charge sheet has been filed against Muhammad Dilawar Iqbal from Abbaspur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Mohammed Ubaid Malik from Kupwara under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 121A (conspiracy to commit criminal offences) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 18 (conspiracy),18B (recruiting person for terror act), 20 and 38 (offences related to being member of terror group) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the statement said.

NIA said Dilawar Iqbal was a close associate of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar who runs the terrorist group from across the border.

“Dilawar would incite youth having a militancy background to pursue jihad by sharing with them inflammatory audio clips and videos as well as images of Maulana Masood Azhar Alvi, showing the latter preaching radical Islam,” the NIA statement said.

NIA registered the terror conspiracy case on June 21, 2022, on its own in connection with the conspiracy hatched by terrorist organisations to unleash violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms as part of the Pakistan-backed terror groups’ conspiracy to carry out terror acts and violence in Jammu and Kashmir.