Above: Hafeez Saeed/Photo: UNI

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday (January 18) filed a chargesheet in the NIA Special Court, Patiala House Courts Complex, against 12 accused persons for conspiring to wage war against the Government of India by carrying out terrorist and secessionist activities in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

The 12,794-page chargesheet has been filed under sections 120B, 121, 121A and 124A of the Indian Penal Code and sections 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The main accused in the chargesheet, filed before the court of Additional Session Judge Tarun Sherawat includes Hafeez Saeed, the Lahore, Pakistan-based, head of “proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba and Amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah.”

On July 24, 2017 the NIA had arrested seven separatists – Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah — on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India.

These names are also in the chargesheet (see below), plus a businessman in a case of funding terror.

—India Legal Bureau