Big breakthrough: NIA arrests Jaish-e-Mohammed's Nagrota army camp attack plotter

Arrested JeM operative has revealed that the Nagrota army camp attack conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan.

Srinagar/New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested an alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Muneer-ul-Hassan Qadri in connection with the 2016 terror attack on an Army camp in Nagrota in which seven soldiers, including two officers, were killed.

An NIA spokesman, while appreciating the role of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, said that Qadri, who is a resident of Lolab in north Kashmir, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Nagrota terror attack on the Army camp on November 29, 2016.

Three Pakistani terrorists were also killed in the ensuing operation by the Indian Army and a huge quantity of firearms, ammunition, explosives and other articles were seized from them.

The alleged JeM operative was arrested in a joint operation with Jammu and Kashmir Police.

During his interrogation, Qadri, a Nepal returnee who was in custody of the J&K Police for some time, admitted his role in various terror modules, including the group involved in the Nagrota attack.

J&K: NIA arrested Syed Muneer -Ul-Hassan Qadri, a resident of Kupwara in connection with terrorist attack at Army camp at Nagrota on 29 November, 2016 in which 7 army jawans lost their lives & 3 others were injured. He revealed that the attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad. — ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2018

"Qadri has revealed that he along with other Valley-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operatives were in touch with its leadership in Pakistan and had received a freshly infiltrated group of three Pakistani terrorists from the Samba sector a day before the attack (on November 29, 2016)," an NIA spokesperson said. 

Preliminary interrogation of the accused revealed that the attack was carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a banned terror group, in furtherance of a well-planned conspiracy from Pakistan, the spokesman said.

Qadri also reportedly told the interrogators that he along with other Valley-based JeM operatives were in touch with the JeM leadership in Pakistan and had received a freshly infiltrated group of three Pakistani terrorists from the Samba sector a day before the attack.

''They subsequently stayed at a hotel in Jammu and then left the attackers outside the army camp in Nagrota late at night, and proceeded to the Kashmir Valley,'' the spokesman said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had registered a case into the incident in December 2016 for offences under sections 120B, 121, 307 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) and sections seven and 27 of the Arms Act, 1958. 

(With Agency inputs)