A Jammu court has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed for his role in last year’s terror attack at Baisaran Marj in Pahalgam. The arrest warrant was issued at the request of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which plans to declare the terrorist a declared criminal, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Since Saeed is unlikely to appear before an Indian court at all and Pakistan will not extradite him, the NIA will use this tag to conduct his “trial in absentia” — a clause now included in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, added the people, requesting anonymity.
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The federal agency filed a supplementary charge sheet on July 6 naming Saeed as the main conspirator of the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people and sparked a four-day armed conflict between India and Pakistan.
After filing the chargesheet, the NIA approached a Jammu special court seeking a “non-bailable dated search warrant” against Saeed “to initiate further action and take legal action against him in any further investigation,” said one of the people, a law enforcement agency officer.
While issuing the arrest warrant, the court in its order dated July 8 said, “The arrest and questioning of Hafez Saeed is necessary for a fair, complete and effective investigation.” HT has reviewed a copy of the order.
Another person, who is also a law enforcement agency officer, said: “Based on this NBW, we will seek to declare Saeed a declared guilty person. He will be sent to Pakistan through official channels followed by a request for his repatriation. Since we know Pakistan will not respond to India’s judicial requests, Saeed’s trial will be conducted in absentia as per Section 356 of the National Security Act.”
Although Saeed is a UN-designated terrorist and multiple indictments have been filed against him in the past, he has never been tried as he has never appeared before Indian courts.
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The government introduced the principle of “investigation, trial or sentence in absentia of the declared offender” under Section 356 of the National Security Act in the new criminal laws, primarily to facilitate the trial in absentia of fugitives like Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim and economic criminals like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.
After the indictment was filed last week, the NIA said in a statement that it had provided “the details of the Pakistani conspiracy, the role of Hafiz Saeed, and supporting evidence in the case through a rigorous scientific investigation and field examination.”
The wanted terrorist, who is behind several attacks in India including the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has been charged under the terrorism-related sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The National Intelligence Agency said that investigations are still ongoing to uncover the full conspiracy of Pakistan, which was sponsoring terrorism on Indian soil across the border.
In its first chargesheet filed in December last year, the NIA identified three Pakistani terrorists who opened fire on tourists in Besaran as Faisal Jat alias Sulaiman, Habib Tahir alias Jibran Bhai, Hamza Afghan (who was later killed during Operation Mahadev in July 2025), Resistance Front (TRF) leader Sajid Saifullah Jat aka Langda, and two local residents, Bashir Ahmad Guttad. and his nephew Parvez Ahmed (both were arrested in 2025). June last year) and LeT/TRF.
In its investigation, the NIA concluded that the terrorist attack that occurred on April 22, 2025 “involved targeted killings on religious grounds by Pakistan-backed terrorists.” Of the 26 dead, 25 were Hindus.
In the first chargesheet published by Hizb ut Tahrir on May 22, the NIA stated that Sajid Saifullah Jatt shared the coordinates of Marj Besaran with the attackers and that one of the terrorists involved was also part of a terror attack on the Srinagar-Leh highway in October 2024.
It also revealed that the three terrorists involved sat outside the lawn and ate lunch before carrying out the attack, and opened fire in celebration after it.
According to the first indictment, data from two phones recovered from the terrorists revealed “conversations with Sajid Jat giving them directions… and screenshots from the Alpine Quest app showing coordinates of locations near Baysaran Park.” Both the phones, based on data from the Indian arm of phone maker Xiaomi, were sold in Pakistan, the NIA said.
The NIA’s first chargesheet says the investigation “conclusively established that the terrorist attack in Pahalgam (Bisran) was planned, directed and controlled from Pakistan.”
