A Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jammu has issued an open-dated non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed in connection with the 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, marking a landmark legal win in one of India’s most damaging terror cases in recent years.
The order, passed by the Special NIA Court on July 8, comes as the investigating agency discovered Saeed was deliberately evading arrest while operating from Pakistan. The warrant allows investigators to continue legal proceedings against him and also opens the possibility of conducting a trial in absentia under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) if the legal requirement be fulfilled.
Hafiz Saeed has been identified as a terrorist in the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967) and founder of the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba by the court order. And he remains in Pakistan right now, and is not available for the Indian law enforcement agencies to follow, the court said.
The National Investigation Agency argued Saeed’s arrest and custodial interrogation were necessary to ensure a fair, complete and effective investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack. After the agency’s submission, the court directed that the non-bailable warrant be forwarded to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG), NIA Jammu, for execution in line with legal procedures.
The latest order follows the filing of a supplementary chargesheet by the NIA last week. Hafiz Saeed is charged in the chargesheet as a person at home and the chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and its proxy outfit The Resistance Front (TRF). Investigators have invoked many provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the UAPA, among them charges of waging war against India, criminal conspiracy and terrorism.
The supplementary chargesheet expands upon the agency’s original 1,597-page chargesheet filed on December 15, 2025. The document, the NIA said, describes Pakistan’s alleged conspiracy behind the attack, details Hafiz Saeed’s role in planning and leading terrorist activities, and presents evidence gathered through scientific forensic analysis, technical intelligence, and extensive field investigations.
The original chargesheet had named Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt, three terrorists who were later killed in Operation Mahadev in July 2025 and two suspects arrested during the investigation. The NIA named Lashkar-e-Taiba and The Resistance Front as legal entities that were accused of planning, facilitating and executing the Pahalgam terror attack.
The attack took place in the tourist town Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025. Pakistan-sponsored terrorists carried out religion-based targeted killings that left 26 people dead, including 25 tourists and one local civilian, investigators said. The attack hit home across the country, and it was widely condemned locally and internationally.
The case was originally registered as FIR No. 25/2025 at Pahalgam Police Station in Anantnag district. After initial investigations by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Investigation Agency shifted the investigation to the National Investigation Agency considering the cross-border terror links and the national security implications of the attack.
Hafiz Saeed is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has been internationally recognized for terrorist activity. In 2020, he was sentenced by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in terror financing cases. But Indian officials have maintained that the proceedings didn’t address his roles in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and cross-border attacks.
The issuance of the non-bailable warrant would be another step taken by Indian authorities to hold the alleged masterminds of the Pahalgam attack accountable. Saeed is outside India’s jurisdiction, the order strengthens the legal framework for pursuing further action against him and strengthens India’s efforts to prosecute those accused of orchestrating cross-border terrorism through established judicial processes.
