Srinagar Jailbreak: NIA Gets 7-Day Custody of 5 Accused

All the five accused were charged with conspiring the escape of Naveed Jhatt from a Srinagar hospital.

Photo of prisoner Naveed Jhatt, alias Abu Hanzalla, who escaped after terrorists opened fire at a police protection party at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar.

(Photo: ANI)

The five accused arrested in connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt's escape from a Srinagar hospital were, on Friday 16 February, remanded in seven-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody by a special court in Jammu, an official said.

The special NIA court in Jammu granted seven days of remand of all the five accused who were nabbed by the Jammu and Kashmir police on 8 February, ten days after Jhatt alias Abu Hanzalla escaped from the busy SMHS hospital, a Spokesperson for the agency said.

Jhatt had managed to escape on 6 February after at least two other militants attacked a police escort team at the hospital, where he was brought in for treatment.

Two policemen – head constable Mushtaq Ahmed and constable Babar Ahmed – of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were killed by Jhatt and his accomplice during their escape.

All the five accused – Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Mohammed Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammed Ganai – were charged with conspiring the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt. All of them are residents of Pulwama in south Kashmir.

The NIA has re-registered the case in Jhatt's escape.

The accused will be produced before the specially-designated NIA special court in Jammu on 17 February, when the police will seek his custody, the Spokesperson said.

According to the police, Bhat is believed to be one of the masterminds of the escape plan and his motorcycle was used in it.

Khan, a resident of Pulwama, is alleged to have provided his car for further transportation of Jhatt out of the city, the police said.

Jhatt is at present believed to be in Pulwama area, they said.

Shafi, who is from Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar city, had posed as a patient to provide cover for the terrorists' escape.

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