Nagrota Army camp attack: How Jaish terrorists were helped indirectly by Geelani

The terrorists arrested in connection with the Nagrota Army camp attack have revealed chilling details on how the attack was carried out. The National Investigation has been questioning the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists has revealed that they were in regular touch with their handlers in Pakistan.

Interrogation of three terrorists arrested in the Nagrota attack case namely Md Ashiq Baba, Tariq Ahmed Dar and Muneer-ul-Hassan Qadri have revealed that they were in regular touch with JeM commanders based in Pakistan.

They were in continuous contact through WhatsApp and other chatting platforms. They said that they were taking instructions from one Maulana Mufti Asghar who was the uncle of dreaded terrorist Waqas who was recently killed in Pulwama. The terrorists also revealed that they also kept in touch with another commander Qari Zarar who was based in Rawalpindi.

In furtherance to the conspiracy to conduct attacks on the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorist Ashiq Baba visited Pakistan four times crossing the Wagah border (between 2015 to 2017) legally.

He obtained his visas after getting reference letters from Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Gillani, Gani Bhat and Maulana Umar Farooq. During his visits, he met with JeM commanders and took directions from them after getting clearance from a local ISI agent.

Ashiq Baba thereafter on return, received instructions on how and when to receive the group of terrorists. Around a week prior to the attack, he and the other arrested terrorist Muneer were given the GPS coordinates of the receiving point along the Samba sector highway as well as of the possible targets along the Nagrota army cantonment through Whatsapp from their handlers in Pakistan.

They were asked to recee these targets. Ashiq went with Muneer (and later joined by the accused Tariq) and finalised the receiving point and the target. Officers mess complex of 166 Medium Regiment at Nagrota was chosen due to its convenient location towards the end of the Cantonment. After finalisation, the points were passed on Whatsapp to the JeM commanders in Pakistan.

They then received a group of three attackers a day before the attack (28th Nov 2016 in early morning hours) at the decided location. The terrorists changed their clothes near the highway after they were received by Ashiq Baba, Muneer and Tariq. They then travelled in two vehicles to Jammu after keeping their weapons concealed in the boot of the car.

Ashiq baba and Muneer again received a group of three terrorists on March 2017 from the Samba sector and dropped them at Khrew near Pampore. This time the terrorists were received by Noor Trali (JeM commander who was subsequently killed in an encounter).

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.

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.