J-K's Dhangri village killing: NIA arrests two for harbouring terrorists

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two persons for harbouring the terrorists who had killed five innocent civilians in Dhangri village of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district in January this year, the agency said on Saturday.Nisar Ahmed alias Haji Nisar and Mushtaq Hussain were arrested on Thursday following the revelation of NIA investigations that "both the arrested accused persons were involved in harbouring the terrorists who had carried out the shocking killings of the civilians in Dhangri village in Rajouri district on January 1".

As per NIA, the two accused had provided "logistics support to the terrorists for more than two months and had sheltered them in a hideout, which was constructed by the arrested accused persons on the directions of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) handlers namely Saifullah alias Sajid Jutt, Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi and Mohd Qasim."

The accused were produced before the NIA Special Court in Jammu on Friday and were sent to 12 days of NIA custody.

Both the accused were currently lodged in Central Jail in Kot Bhalwal in Jammu in another case registered at Gursai Police Station in Poonch district's Mendhar area.On January 1 this year, five persons were killed and others seriously injured in an attack by unidentified terrorists. The case was initially registered at Rajouri Police Station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and Arms Act. NIA had taken over and re-registered the case on January 13.

During the course of investigations of the case pertaining to the killing of innocent civilians at Dhangri village in Rajouri district, a team of NIA officials camped for quite some time in the hilly terrain of Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts of Jammu and Kashmir and examined a large number of suspicious entities and later zeroed in on the above mentioned accused persons who had provided the hideout.