The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken into custody Syed Muneer-ul-Hassan Qadri, a resident of Lolab, Kupwara, whom it blames for aiding the attack on the Nagrota army base in 2016. Qadri, a suspected Jaish-e-Muhammad operative, had been arrested by the police some twenty days back in Srinagar and was handed over to the NIA on Saturday.
“Preliminary interrogation of the accused revealed that the attack was carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammad in furtherance of a well-planned conspiracy from Pakistan,” the Inspector General of Police, NIA, Alok Mitta said. “He revealed to have received a freshly infiltrated group of three Pakistani militants from the Samba sector a day before the attack,” said Mittal.
“They subsequently stayed at a hotel in Jammu and then left the attackers at Nagrota outside the army camp late at night and proceeded to the Kashmir valley.” He said the accused revealed that he along with other Kashmir-based JeM operatives were in touch with the JeM leadership in Pakistan.
In the attack on the Nagrota Army camp on November 29, 2016, seven army men were killed and three others injured. Three attackers were also killed in the operation and a huge quantity of fire arms, ammunition, explosives and other articles were recovered from the slain militants.
Muneer-ul-Hassan was detained by the police some 20 days ago in Srinagar in regard to the recovery of weapons and the arrest of two men from a car in the Khanyar area of the old city. During the investigation of the two men the name of Qadri popped up. The police then took him into custody and on sustained interrogation he confessed to his role in the Nagrota camp attack. Qadri, according to the police has returned from Pakistan along with his Pakistani wife after being there for 22 year under the J&K governments’ rehabilitation policy. He was running a boutique in the HMT area of Srinagar.