Nagrota attack: NIA takes custody of JeM operative; accused says he was in touch with outfit's leadership in Pakistan

New Delhi: The NIA on Saturday took the custody of alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Muneer-ul-Hassan Qadri from the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the 2016 terror attack on an army camp in Nagrota in which seven soldiers, including two officers, were killed. [caption id=“attachment_4483757” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Qadri, a Nepal returnee who was in custody of the police for sometime, had told his interrogators about his role in various terror modules, including the group involved in the Nagrota attack. An NIA spokesman, while appreciating the role of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, said, Qadri, a resident of Lolab in north Kashmir, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the terrorist attack on the army camp on 29 November, 2016, in which seven army personnel were killed and three others injured. Three Pakistani terrorists were killed in the operation and a huge quantity of firearms, ammunition, explosives and other articles were seized from them, he said. Preliminary interrogation of the accused revealed that the attack was carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), a banned terror group, in furtherance of a well-planned conspiracy from Pakistan, the spokesman said. The accused is claimed to have told the interrogators that he, along with other Valley-based JeM operatives, was 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.