Jammu, Sep 24, KNT: Bilal Ahmad Kuchey, a 32-year-old accused in the 2019 Pulwama militant attack, passed away due to a heart attack at a Jammu jail on Monday night. Kuchey, a resident of Hajibal Kakapora in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was among 19 people charged in the case.
The Pulwama attack, which occurred on February 14, 2019, claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel and injured eight others when allegedly a Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad militant rammed an explosive-laden car into a convoy in Lethapora on the Srinagar-Jammu highway. Kuchey was hospitalized on September 17 after falling ill at the Kishtwar district jail, officials said.
According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Kuchey and 18 others were chargesheeted on August 25, 2020, for providing logistics and harboring JeM militants. Six militants, including three Pakistanis involved in the case, were killed in separate encounters, while six others, including JeM founder Masood Azhar, remain at large. [KNT]
