Nisar Ahmed Tantray was part of a terror group that attacked a CRPF camp in 2017. (File)
A Jaish-e-Mohammed operative accused of targeting a CRPF training centre in Pulwama's Lethpora nearly two years ago has been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) upon being deported from the United Arab Emirates. The terrorist, Nisar Ahmed Tantray, was later sent to police custody by an NIA court.
The terror operative was part of a heavily armed group that attacked the CRPF training centre in Lethpora on the night of December 31, 2017, resulting in the death of five soldiers. Among the two terrorists killed was the 16-year-old son of a policeman who had joined the Jaish-e-Mohammed a few months before the attack.
The terrorists had struck around 2 am that night. They threw grenades and opened fire before breaching the perimeter of the training centre of the training centre, located about 30 km from Srinagar. The Pakistan-based terror outfit claimed responsibility for the attack soon afterwards.
According to sources, Nisar Ahmed Tantray -- a resident of Tral in the same district -- fled to the United Arab Emirates on February 1 this year after one of his associates was arrested by NIA. He is the younger brother of Noor Tantray, a Jaish-e-Mohammed commander who was killed by security forces in an encounter at Pulwama on December 26, 2017.
He is currently being interrogated by the probe agency.
India has intensified its efforts to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist in the United Nations ever since his outfit carried out a terror attack on a CRPF convoy on February 14, 2019, killing 40 CRPF personnel. While the move is supported by several countries such as France and the United States, China has blocked it repeatedly.
The Jaish-e-Mohammed had also attacked an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri on September 18, 2016, which resulted in the death of 19 soldiers. Four terrorists involved in the attack were also killed.