A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in connection with the investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack.
The order was passed by the Special Judge of the NIA Court on 8 July, two days after the NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet naming Saeed in the case.
Warrant issued after supplementary chargesheet
The supplementary chargesheet, submitted before the special NIA court in Jammu, names the 76-year-old Saeed both in his personal capacity and as the head of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba and its proxy outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF).
He has been charged under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, as well as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
According to the court order, the NIA informed the court that Saeed, a resident of Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province, has deliberately evaded arrest despite being an accused in the Pahalgam terror attack case. The agency sought an open-dated non-bailable warrant to enable further legal proceedings and facilitate action against him during the course of the investigation.
Granting the request, the court said: “Arrest and custodial interrogation of the accused (Saeed) are necessary for a fair, complete and effective investigation. As such non-bailable warrant of arrest is issued against him and is forwarded to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG), NIA Jammu, for execution in accordance with law.”
Global terrorist and Mumbai attack mastermind
Saeed has been designated a global terrorist by both India and the United States. He is also widely regarded as the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
On 22 April last year, terrorists killed 26 people, most of them tourists, in Pahalgam in south Kashmir. The attack is one of the deadliest in the region in recent years and remains under investigation by the NIA.
