Srinagar: The men allegedly involved in 2016 attack on Army artillery unit in Nagrota have been arrested with inputs by Srinagar based Military Intelligence and Special Operation Group of Jammu Kashmir Police.
“National Investigation Agency had a little role while the job was done Military Intelligence (MI) and Cargo based Special Operation Group of J&K police,” an official told news agency CNS.
As per the officials, MI provided leads while SOG investigated and conducted raids. So far 4 persons one among them hailing from Chenab Valley has been arrested in connection with Nagrota November 2016 attack.
They are Omar Bashir alias Mandeela of Khanyar, Syed Muneer -Ul-Hassan Qadri of Khurhama Kupwara, presently residing at Mustafa Abad HMT, Tariq Ahmed of Pulwama and Ashiq Baba of Shajroo Gool Gulabgarh.
“It was Srinagar based Military Intelligence Wing that zeroed in on Omar Bashir alias Mandeela of Khanyar. Omar proved to be a whistleblower who helped us to track down Muneer and Muneer confessed the involvement of timber merchant from Pulwama Tariq Ahmed and subsequently Ashiq Baba’s name surfaced.”
As per official Ashiq Baba is the master mind of the attack. Ashiq, a resident of Chenab Valley is presently staying at HMT. He was picked up from Aloochi Bagh area of Srinagar city while during questioning it surfaced that he provided all the logistic support to the militants involved in the attack.
“The involvement of Omar is not so big. He only supplied weapons at initial stage and later on maintained silence. The fifty year old Munir as per investigation was in touch with other accused. Munir had returned from Pakistan administered Kashmir after 15 years via Nepal. He was already on surveillance. His phone records show that he was constantly in touch with Ashiq Baba, Tariq and others.”
The security official said that Tariq’s role has also been established. Prima facie it seems his vehicle was used to ferry militants to Nagrota. “In fact, the nephew of Tariq is a wanted Hizb militant who is active in South Kashmir,” he said.
He added that the investigation has been going on in full swing and more arrests are expected.
Two Army officers and five soldiers were killed when three heavily-armed militants attacked an artillery unit in the Nagrota area of Jammu. Three militants were also killed.
(With inputs from CNS)
