How a blend of Military Intelligence and strong policing cracked the Nagrota attack case

The Nagrota attack was perhaps one of the most horrific in recent times. On 29th November 2016 terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad struck at an Army camp in Nagrota, Jammu and Kashmir, in which seven Army personnel were martyred.

The operation was carried out by a seven member team of which three were killed. The agencies have now arrested four persons and this in itself is a major breakthrough.

The operation to nab the terrorists was carried out by the National Investigation Agency along with the Jammu and Kashmir police. It was in fact the Srinagar based Military Intelligence Unit and the Special Operation Group of the J&K police which helped the NIA crack the case. Concrete intelligence on the whereabouts of the terrorists is what helped crack the case, highly placed sources informed OneIndia.

It was the Military Intelligence that provided the information and the same was worked upon by SOG. The SOG conducted raids apart from probing the matter. The terrorists were then arrested.

The four persons to be arrested are Omar Bashir alias Mandela, Syed Muneer ul-Hassan, Tariq Ahmed and Asia Baba. All four during their interrogation confessed that they were tasked by their Pakistani handlers of the Jaish-e-Mohammad to strike at the Army camp.
The first round of success was achieved with the arrest of Omar Bashir. A tough questioning of Bashir led to further clues about the rest.

The MI then gathered intelligence following which the rest of them were nabbed. The next to be nabbed was Muneer. During his questioning, he spoke about the involvement of Tariq, who is a timber merchant from Pulwama. The last one to be nabbed based on the confessions and intelligence was the dreaded Ashiq Baba.

NIA sources who are probing the case say that Baba was the mastermind of the attack.

The police had picked up him from the Aloochi Bagh area in Srinagar city. Apart from masterminding the attack, he also was instrumental in providing the logistics to the terrorists who struck at the Army camp. Ashiq is a resident of the Chenab Valley and he stayed in touch with all those involved in the strike, investigations have also shown.

Investigators say that Muneer had played a vital role in the attack. He was one of the main point of contacts for the terrorists. Prior to the attack, he was residing at Pakistan occupied Kashmir. After residing there for over a decade he returned to Kashmir via Nepal. During investigations, it showed that Muneer was directly in touch with Baba as well as the Jaish terrorists.

With regard to Tariq, investigators found that he had lent his vehicle was used to transport the terrorists to the Army camp at Nagrota. With regard to Omar, the investigators say that he played a crucial role at first by supplying arms, but later on he went silent. We are still probing him for further details, officials also informed. The NIA does not rule out the possibility of more arrests. Details are emerging and there is a likelihood that more arrests would take, the officer also informed.