STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday raided the residential premises of an absconding accused in the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terror conspiracy case.
The accused has been identified as Riaz Ahmed @ Hazari, a resident of Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir. NIA has announced a cash reward of Rs. 3 Lakh for leads on Riaz Ahmad @ Hazari. The searches conducted at his house led to the seizure of one mobile phone, which is being analysed.
The case, registered initially by ATS, UP Lucknow on 12th September 2018, was re-registered by NIA as case RC-02/2018/NIA/LKW under UA (P) Act on 24th September 2018. The case, registered against one Kamruk Zaman & others, related to a criminal conspiracy to carry out terror attacks by HM cadres at different places in U.P and other parts of India.
Kamrun and one absconding accused, Osama Bin Javed, were chargesheeted in NIA Special Court, Lucknow on 11th March 2019 under various sections of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Osama was killed in an encounter with security forces on 28th September 2019.
Subsequently, on 29th May 2021, a Supplementary Chargesheet was filed against arrested accused persons Nisar Ahmad Sheikh and Nishad Ahmad Butt, both residents of J&K. A second supplementary chargesheet was filed against arrested accused Danish Naseer on 25th November 2022. Investigations have revealed that accused Kamruj Zaman was radicalized by Osama Bin Javed to join the HM and both received nine months of physical and weapon-handling training by HM cadres. Absconding accused Riaz Ahmad @ Hazari, an active militant and district Deputy Commander of the HM, along with another co-accused Mohammad Amin @ Jahangir Saroori, also an active militant and District Commander of HM, was involved in recruiting and training accused Kamruj Zaman and Osama Bin Javed in the forests of Kishtwar district of J&K.
After completion of training, Kamruj was directed to set up bases and hideouts, and select targets in U.P, Assam and other parts of India for terrorist activities. Accordingly, he had come to Kanpur where he had also carried out reconnaissance of a few targets.