NEW DELHI: The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists, who were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, were in constant touch with Pakistani handlers in Shakargarh area of Punjab’s Narowal district in Pakistan, according to the evidence collected so far.
A wireless set, medicines made in Pakistan and a QMobile were found in possession of the terrorists killed in the gun battle in Nagrota.
The pictures of the radio set, Digital Mobile Radio manufactured by a Pakistani company called Micro Electronics, showed an exchange of text messages allegedly between the terrorists and their handlers, government sources said.
QMobile is a Pakistani consumer electronics marketing company.
In one of the texts, the handler asked if the infiltrating men had reached safely. “Kahan pahunche? Kya soorte haal hai? Koi mushkil toh nahi (Where have you reached? What’s the scene? I hope no trouble so far)?” the message reads.
The agency suspects the message was sent by a handler in Shakargarh in PoK.
Tags on the pants and markings on the shoes of the terrorists also established the Pakistani link and the medicine strips recovered show markings of Lahore and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, sources said.
Two of the terrorists, named Rauf Azghar and Qari Zarar, are suspected to be the Jaish commanders who were giving direct instructions to the Nagrota terrorists.
After crossing the International Border and reaching a pre-designated point on the national highway south of Samba, the terrorists were on their way to Kashmir.
The huge cache of weapons recovered indicates their plan was to disrupt the one year of normalcy in the Valley, sources said.
They added that the terrorists infiltrated on the intervening night of Thursday-Friday after crossing a nallah near the Samba sector.