NIA arrests key conspirator in Lethpora 2017 terror attack case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested one more key conspirator who is accused of providing logistic support to all terrorists who attacked the CRPF Group Centre in Lethpora of Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The accused Syed Hilal Andrabi is an active Over Ground Worker of proscribed terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and also a key conspirator who provided logistic support in the form of sheltering the terrorists and conducting reconnaissance of the CRPF Group centre, Lethpora before the terrorist attack. The terrorist attack was carried out in the intervening night of December 30-31, 2017, by three terrorists of  JeM.

Andrabi is a resident of Pulwama's Ratnipora.

With the arrest of Andrabi, a total number of arrested in this case has risen to four. Three accused has already been arrested for being a part of the conspiracy for this attack including Fayaz Ahmad Magrey, Manzoor Ahmed Bhat and Nisar Ahmed Tantray.

The CRPF Group Centre in Lethpora was attacked by three terrorists and NIA was given the responsibility to probe this attack, which had claimed the lives of five CRPF personnel. The probe by NIA had revealed that the cowardly attack was carried by Jaish terrorists. The three terrorists involved in the attack were identified as Fardeen Ahmed, Manzoor Baba and Abdul Shakoor.  

Last week, NIA had arrested absconding JeM terrorist Tantray as soon as landed at Delhi airport after being deported from UAE.

Nisar, a resident of Tral in Pulwama, was involved in a fidayeen attack on the CRPF Group Centre. He had fled away to UAE on February 1, 2019, after one of his associates was arrested by NIA. Nisar was produced before the NIA court for police remand. He is the younger brother of Noor Tantray, the JeM commander who was killed by security forces in an encounter at Pulwama on December 26, 2017.

The three terrorists were killed by security forces after the attack. Fardeen and Manzoor were resident of Pulwama, while Abdul Shakoor was a Pakistani national.

The mastermind of this attack was Faiyaz Ahmed from Pulwama. He was arrested by NIA on February 4, 2019. According to NIA sources, Faiyaz was an overground worker of Jaish and he had provided shelter to the terrorists who carried out the Lethpora attack. Besides this, Faiyaz also provided all kind of logistic support to the three terrorists.