JeM chief Masood Azhar’s brother handled Pakistani suicide attackers of Nagrota encounter

Srinagar: A day after four Jaish-e-Mohammed militants were eliminated in a fierce encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nagrota area, reports have claimed that the handler for the slain militants was none other than the brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, founder and chief of the militant organisation.

As per sources, the four militants infiltrated into India from the Samba Sector on November 18-19 to carry out a Pulwama-scale terror strike under the orders of Azhar’s brother Abdul Rauf Asgar, and commissioned by Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence.

Asgar reportedly selected the four militants from the Shakargarh camp of JeM in Pakistan adjoining the Indian border. Qazi Tarar, another high-ranking militant in the JeM also worked on the plan with Asgar.

The reports further stated that a meeting was also held at the militant organisation’s headquarters in Bahawalpur, where usual suspects Maulana Abu Jundal and Mufti Tauseef, the above two Jaish commanders and ISI officers, were present.

After the planning was complete, the Shakargarh unit of the outfit was tasked to carry out the final phase of the operation, including the selection of militants and their complete training.

*Nagrota encounter – modus operandi*

The militants used the network of nullahs in the riverine border areas to sneak into Indian territory in Samba Sector. They were then picked up in a truck near Jatwal, roughly 6 kilometres from the Sector towards Kathua in Jammu.

According to sources who understand the terror network, most of the JeM infiltration attempts have been carried out via similar routes in the same Sector in the dark around 3-4 am.

When their truck was intercepted by security forces at the Ban Toll Plaza on Friday, the driver abandoned the vehucle and fled. The militants hiding at the back of the vehicle panicked and opened fire at the Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and Central Reserve Police Force troopers around 4:45 am.

The militants raised slogans of “Allah-O-Akbar, Islam Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad and Jaish Zindabad” when they were given the option to surrender through numerous appeals, news agency ANI reported.

A huge cache of arms was recovered on the slain terrorists, including 11 AK rifles, 23 magazines, 29 grenades, 10 under-barrel grenade launchers, along with hand-held Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and CASIO watches with the same time set on all. (TimesNow)