The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammad operative who was involved in an attack on the Nagrota army camp in Jammu and Kashmir in November 2016, PTI reported. Seven Army personnel, including two officers, were killed in the attack.
Mohammed Ashraf Khandey was arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport when he was trying to flee to Saudi Arabia. “There was a non-bailable warrant pending against accused Mohammed Ashraf Khandey and we had got issued a Look Out Circular against him,” said NIA Inspector General and spokesperson Alok Mittal.
Khandey, a resident of Achhan village in Kashmir’s Pulwama district, was a “co-conspirator in facilitating, harboring and transporting” a group of three Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists who carried out the attack, said Mittal.
During its probe, the National Investigation Agency also busted a network of overground Jaish workers. “Three accused – Sayeed Munir-ul-Hassan Qadri, Tariq Ahmed Dar and Mohd Ashiq Baba – have already been arrested in the case and are in judicial custody,” said Mittal. All the accused were acting on the “directions of leaders/handlers of Jaish-e-Mohammad based in Pakistan for carrying out the terrorist attack”.
Baba and Dar were arrested in June for their alleged role in assisting the militants. Qadri was arrested in May.
The attack, carried out on November 29, 2016, also left three militants dead. A huge cache of fire arms, ammunition, explosives and other articles were recovered from the deceased. Documents written in Urdu claiming the incident as “the first instalment in revenge for killing Afzal Guru” were recovered from the militants. It also said the Nagrota attack was the work of “holy warriors fighting for Ghazwa-e-Hind”.
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