The four Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who were killed in the Nagrota encounter on November 19 were being handled by Abdul Rauf Asgar, the brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar. The terrorists were in constant touch with Abdul Rauf Asgar and their handers in Kashmir including Asgar Khan Kashmiri, when they entered India, as per India Today report. Kashmiri is the operational commander of Jaish in Kashmir.
The Indian security forces have recovered a huge cache of weapons and ammunition from the four terrorists who were killed. They also found Pakistan-made Q-mobiles, Garmin handheld systems and Pakistan-made handheld wireless sets on the dead terrorists.
According to government sources, Jaish-e-Mohammed was planning a major terror attack on the 12th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks.
Top government sources told India Today, that the responsibility was conducting a major terrorist attack, much bigger than Pulwama attack, was given to Jaish-e-Mohammed's head Masood Azhar by Pakistan Army's Inter-Services Intelligence under its operational commander Abdul Rauf Asgar.
After initial planning, the Sharkargarh unit of Jaish was deployed to carry out the plan, this included selection of terrorist and their training. The four terrorists killed in Nagrota had received suicide attack training, they had also learned how to inflict maximum damage on the Indian positions in the Kashmir Valley. They used nullahs in the Samba sector to cross the border and enter Indian territory.
They were picked up by a truck near Jatwal which is 6 km away from Samba. Sources have said that Jaish has used the same sector for infiltration 3-4 times earlier, according to India Today.
Indian forces including J&K police and CRPF intercepted the truck at a toll plaza at 4:45 am on Thursday. The terrorist hiding in the truck panicked as started shooting at the armed forces leading to an encounter between the two sides.
The encounter between the Jaish group and Indian forces lasted for 3 hours. The four terrorists were shot and killed in the encounter while 2 policemen suffered injuries. Indian forces recovered a huge cache of arms from the terrorist, including 11 AK rifles, 23 magazines, 29 grenades, 10 under-barrel grenade launchers, all of which were made in Pakistan. They also recovered Global Positioning Systems and CASIO watches.