National Investigating Agency on Tuesday filed a charge sheet against Maulana Abdul Rouf Asgar, deputy chief of Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group and brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, and 13 others in connection with a case pertaining to the attack on an Army camp in Nagrota in Jammu in November 2016.
A NIA spokesman in a statement here said, “The charge sheet was filed under various sections of Ranbir Penal Code (substitute of IPC in Jammu and Kashmir), Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Foreigners Act against the accused. Investigation conducted by the NIA revealed that four local Kashmiri JeM members, Muhammad Ashiq Baba alias Muhammad Ashaq, Syed Munir-Ul-Hassan Qadri, Tariq Ahmad Dar and Ashraf Hamid Khandey (all arrested by NIA) had facilitated a group of three heavily armed Pakistani militants and transported them from international border in Samba-Kathua sector to Hotel Jagdamba in Jammu and subsequently to Nagrota in their vehicles for the attack on the November 28, 2016 at Officers’ Mess Complex, 166 Medium Regiment of Indian Army in Nagrota Cantonment (near Jammu).”
The three militants Khalid alias Abu Hissam, Numan and Aadil, who were highly trained and equipped with AK-47 rifles and explosives carried out the attack in which seven army personnel were killed and three were injured. All the three militants were killed.
The NIA spokesman said, “The probe showed that Maulana Abdul Rouf Asgar, deputy chief of JeM and brother of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar, was the mastermind of the Nagrota attack.”
“He worked out the plan of Fidyeen (suicide) attack and provided training to above three militants. He also directed Mufti Asgar (launch commander of JeM in Kashmir region) to provide training, funds, equipment and mobile and other logistics to local JeM member Muhammad Ashiq Baba,” the spokesman said.
“Muhammad Ashiq Baba had visited Pakistan many times and met JeM militants Waseem (Operational commander of JeM), Abu Talha alias Doctor (deputy commander in Jammu region) and Qari Zarar (launch commander of JeM for Jammu region). He was taken for a meeting with Mufti Asgar at Muzaffarabad On reaching there he was received by Abdullah alias Al Hijama and Tariq Mir, both JeM militants who are close associates of Mufti Asgar,” he said.
“During meeting with top leadership of JeM commanders Mufti Asgar chalked out a detailed plan including the modus operandi to be adopted for infiltration of JeM militants and he asked Ashiq to activate local JeM network in Jammu and Kashmir. Ashiq Baba was given training at Manshera in Pakistan and handed over money for arranging logistics along with a GPS enabled Huawei mobile phone for communication with JeM leaders in Pakistan,” the spokesman said.
“The NIA has collected evidence on the basis of disclosure of the accused, detailed social media analysis, digital evidence through requests under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and analysis of data extracted from the seized digital devices,” he said.