The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested one more accused, named Mohd Iqbal Rather, in connection with the Pulwama attack case in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed in an IED blast on February 14, 2019.
Mohd Iqbal Rather, 25, is a resident of Futlipura, Charar-e-Shareef, Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir, read a statement.
Rather had facilitated the movement of Muhammad Umar Farooq, the JeM terrorist and a key conspirator in this case, after he infiltrated into the Indian territory in Jammu region in April 2018, from the National Highway near International border to South Kashmir. Umar Farooq, along with others, had assembled the IED used in the attack.
The accused had been undergoing judicial custody since September 2018 in another Jaish-e-Mohammed related case investigated by NIA. He was produced by the Jail authorities before the NIA Special Court, Jammu today and was taken into seven days NIA custody for interrogation.
The statement further noted that initial examination has revealed that Mohd Iqbal Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based leadership of Jaish-e-Mohammed and was in communication with them over secure messaging applications. Rather was part of the 'transportation module' of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist orgsation.
With his arrest, NIA has so far arrested six accused persons in this case. Further investigation is in progress.
( With inputs from ANI )