&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "NIA court issues non-bailable warrant against Hafiz Saeed in Pahalgam terror attack case")
A special judge of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) Court in Jammu has issued a non-bailable warrant against Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in relation to the Pahalgam terror attack case of 2025. The order was signed on July 8, following a chargesheet filed by the NIA that names Saeed as the chief mastermind behind the deadly terror attack in which 26 people were killed.
“The arrest and custodial interrogation of the said accused are necessary for a fair, complete and effective investigation,” said the court while issuing the warrant. Saeed is a globally designated terrorist and is also the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The court noted that Saeed is operating from Pakistan, making his custodial interrogation necessary. The court order listed multiple aliases of Saeed and identified him as the son of Kamal-ud-Din, a resident of Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province. He is deliberately avoiding arrest.
On April 22, 2026, the terror attack at the tourist site in Pahlgam, South Kashmir, resulted in the death of 26. The three gunmen, Faisal Jatt (alias Suleman Shah), Habeeb Tahir (alias Jibran), and Hamza Afghani, initially fled the scene but were later tracked down and killed by Indian security forces within a few months in counter-terrorism missions. They were operating on behalf of the Resistance Front (TRF).
The 76-year-old Hafiz Saeed, both in his personal capacity and as the chief of the proscribed LeT and its proxy front, TRF, is accused in a supplementary chargesheet filed under the BNS, 2023, and UAPA, 1967. The court directed that the warrant be forwarded to the DIG, NIA Jammu, for execution according to law.
