NIA arrests absconder in 2016 Nagrota army camp attack case

The National Investigation Agency has arrested a man wanted in the 2016 attack on an army camp in Jammu's Nagrota when he was allegedly trying to flee the country through Sri Lanka, officials said Saturday.

Ashraf Khandey, a resident of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, was taken into custody from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here when he was trying to leave for Saudi Arabia via Sri Lanka, they said.

Khandey was arrested for his alleged involvement in the terrorist attack on the army camp in Nagrota on November 29, 2016, in which seven Army personnel including two officers were killed and three others injured, they said.

The agency was looking for him for a long time and a lookout circular was issued against him which was triggered during his attempt to flee the country, they said.

Three Pakistani terrorists were killed in the operation and a huge quantity of firearms, ammunition, explosives and other articles were seized from them, they said.

Khandey had allegedly provided transport to the terrorists after they had crossed over from Pakistan to carry out their nefarious activities, they said.

In May, the agency had taken custody of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Muneer-ul-Hassan Qadri from the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the 2016 attack.

The investigation has so far revealed that the attack was carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) banned terror group in furtherance of a well-planned conspiracy from Pakistan, the NIA had said.

Qadri and other Valley-based JeM operatives were in touch with the outfit's leadership in Pakistan and had received a group of three Pakistani terrorists, who had infiltrated from pakistan, from the Samba sector a day before the attack.

Subsequently, they 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 NIA spokesman had said.