SRINAGAR: Nearly five years after Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists attacked the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, three suspects, who investigators say provided logistics for the operation, are yet to be brought to trial.

Beerwah resident Firdaus Ahmad Farash and Srinagar residents, Firdaus Ahmed Shah and Mehraj-ud-Din Sofi, who the police say transported and sheltered a JeM fidayeen squad which carried out the attack, have been living in their homes for over a year because of protracted investigative and procedural delays.

Worst fidayeen attack

Forty people — 23 civilians and 17 security personnel — were killed in the October 30, 2001 terror strike, the worst single fidayeen attack in the State. Another 93 were injured.

Some experts believe that the Government of India's failure to aggressively publicise the links between the perpetrators and Pakistan's covert services emboldened JeM to authorise a subsequent strike on the Parliament House in December.

Five Pakistani nationals were found to have carried out the Assembly attack. Mohammad Irfan Zamaan of Karachi drove an explosives-laden jeep which crashed into the Assembly gates; he died in the subsequent explosion. Abdul Rauf Ahsan, Tariq Ahmed, Wajahat Husain and Safdar Malik, all residents of the Pakistani province of Punjab, then ran inside the Assembly complex, firing at guards and staff. While Ahsan, Ahmed and Husain were killed in the firefight, Malik escaped — only to be shot dead in a subsequent encounter with the Border Security Force.

Bail granted

Farash, Shah and Sofi were arrested after investigators claimed to have found evidence that they helped to transport and shelter the terrorists and their weapons. But the police failed to file a charge sheet within the legally mandated 60 days, and the three men obtained bail. "We simply did not have enough evidence at that time to make the case stick," a senior police officer told The Hindu , "and our investigative resources were later diverted to more pressing cases."

Even as the investigation dragged on fitfully, the suspects were held under the Public Safety Act, a controversial law which gives the Jammu and Kashmir Government considerable preventive detention powers. Although they spent four years in jail, the police were still unable to complete marshalling of evidence.

Police sources say the charge sheet is now under final legal scrutiny. When it is filed, the three suspects will face trial on charges of murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, damage to property and arson. In addition, they will be charged with waging war against the state, under Section 121 of the Ranbir Penal Code, as well as violations of the Prevention of Subversion and Sabotage Act and the Explosive Substances Act.

Further procedural delays, though, are possible, since prosecutors will require sanction from the Srinagar District Magistrate before the charges of waging war against the state and sabotage are filed in court.

Officials say the Union Home Ministry is contemplating bringing the case before the proposed India-Pakistan joint counter-terrorism mechanism to demand action against key JeM leaders, including the Bahawalpur-based chief Maulana Masood Azhar Alvi.

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