JEM man behind Dec ’17 attack being probed for aiding bomber

JAMMU: A Jaish –e- Mohammed (JEM) terrorist suspected of involvement in a December 2017 attack on the Lethpora CRPF Group Centre that left five troopers dead is emerging as a key suspect in the February 14 suicide car bombing that killed 40 men of the CRPF in Pulwama, a senior official in the security establishment said.

Security forces killed three JEM terrorists in the Lethpora attack. They were identified as Fardeen Ahmed Khandey, Manzoor Baba and Abdul Shakoor. Investigations later revealed that Shakoor was a Pakistani national. Investigations had pointed to a fourth JEM terrorist who was involved in providing logistics. “We have strong reason to believe that there is a link between the Lethpora attack and the suicide bombing of 14 February,” the official cited above said.

“Security agencies initially did intercept communication from the suspected fourth terrorist, but the communication suddenly stopped.”

Recently, in the first week of February 2019, the NIA arrested Fayaz Ahmad Magray, a resident of Avantipora, for helping the three JEM terrorist who took part in the Lethpora attack. An NIA statement after the arrest said Magray was an “overground worker” of JEM who had provided the three terrorists shelter.

While investigators of the NIA and local police are following a bewildering maze of clues, efforts to trace the vehicle used for the suicide bombing hasn’t met with success.