Nagrota Army Attack Accused Were in Contact With JeM Leaders: NIA

Security personnel take positions during a gun battle with suspected militants at Army camp at Nagrota, near Jammu, on Tuesday, 29 November 2016.

(Photo: PTI)

The three men arrested for the November 2016 attack on the Nagrota Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir were in regular touch with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commanders based in Pakistan, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) official told The Quint on Thursday, 7 June.

The NIA official said, "Interrogation of Mohammad Ashiq Baba, JeM operative Syed Muneer-Ul-Hasan-Qadri and Pulwama-based timber dealer Tariq Ahmad Dar has revealed that they were in regular touch with JeM commanders."

They were in continuous WhatsApp contact through voice and text with Maulana Mufti Ashghar based at Muzaffarabad whose “bhanja” Waqas (JeM commander in South Kashmir) died in an encounter near Pulwama recently. Besides him, they were in touch with Qari Zarar (another commander in charge of launching terrorists in Jammu region) based out of Rawalpindi and Waseem and Abu Talha (both in charge of launching Dett along the Jammu region).

NIA

In furtherance of the conspiracy to organise attacks on security forces in the Valley, Baba visited Pakistan four times by "legally" crossing through the Wagah border between 2015 and 2017, according to NIA.

Baba obtained visas for Pakistan visits after getting reference letters from Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Gani Bhat and Maulana Umar Farooq.

NIA

An NIA officer further said, "Baba met JeM commanders and took directions from them after getting clearance from local ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) agents. Baba thereafter, on return, received instructions on how and when to receive the group of terrorists."

Seven soldiers were killed in the attack on the Nagrota Army camp in November 2016. Three attackers too were killed in the counter-operation.

The official said that nearly a week before the attack, the three arrested accused were given GPS coordinates along the Samba Sector and possible targets along the Nagrota Army camp through WhatsApp from Pakistani handlers. They were also asked to conduct reconnaissance of these targets, which they did.

The NIA claimed that the three accused received a group of three attackers on 28 November 2016, a day before the attack and travelled in two vehicles to Jammu after keeping their weapons concealed in one of the two cars owned by Dar and Baba.

"They parked the car with weapons at a paid parking slot and then stayed at a hotel in Jammu. The same day, Baba took one of the attackers, Abu Hisham, to Nagrota to show him the spot to be attacked and returned to the hotel," the official said.

The official said that later in the night, the three Indian terrorists left for the attack site along with the Pakistani attackers and were dropped near the Army camp.

He said that Baba and Qadri received another group of three terrorists in March 2017 from the Samba Sector and dropped them at Khrew near Pampore.

Ashiq Baba then went to Pakistan in April/May 2017 and met Waseem, Abu Talha and Mufti Ashghar. He also met Maulana Rauf (brother of Maulana Masood Azhar and accused in the Pathankot attack case) at their headquarters at Bahawalpur. He was showered praises by the JeM leadership and promised with a lot of financial rewards and was told to receive more attackers in future.

NIA

The NIA official said that a hefty amount of money originating from the Gulf countries was transferred into Baba's HDFC Bank account.

Muneer told Ashiq that the JeM leader wanted him to open an account with HDFC or ICICI bank to receive funds as reward. Ashiq baba already had an HDFC account which he provided to the JeM commanders on WhatsApp. They then transferred hefty amounts into his account. Ashiq says that the amount came from Gulf countries.

NIA

(With IANS inputs)