‘Mission Nagpur’ was probably Raees’s only assignment for JeM

Nagpur: Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Raees Ahmed Shaikh’s visit to Nagpur in July 2021 to conduct recce of RSS headquarters at Mahal and Hedgewar Smruti Bhavan in Reshimbagh was most probably his first and last assignment for the terror outfit.
On Tuesday, Shaikh was sent to magisterial custody after four days of intense grilling by the Nagpur unit of State Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). On May 13, ATS had brought Shaikh into their custody on production warrant.
Though several agencies have already interrogated Raees, there is no clarity about the person deputed by Shaikh’s Pakistan-based handler Omar to provide local logistic support for conducting the recce.
The untraceable person was supposed to meet Shaikh at Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International airport and then take him to different places. Omar had assured Shaikh that this person would guide him. The person did not turn up, leaving Shaikh alone in the city, where he had probably come for the first time.
Hailing from village Chandara in Avantipura district of Jammu Kashmir, Shaikh told interrogators he was inspired to serve JeM after seeing several youngsters joining the outfit and also going to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for arms and ammunition training. A Std X passout, Shaikh worked as an electrician, but later developed inclination towards the terror outfit to fight against India.
One of Shaikh’s friends, later neutralized in an encounter, had shared his number with Omar, who used to assign him some simple tasks of relaying messages and materials to other JeM operatives in Jammu and Kashmir. Shaikh has claimed that coming to Nagpur was his first outstation assignment.
Shaikh’s efforts were limited to some grainy video footage of Hedgewar Smruti Bhavan from Reshimbagh ground, which is quite some distance away. This is learnt to have left his Pakistan-based handler Omar exasperated in his conversations on WhatsApp. Omar, who had sent Raees to Nagpur, wanted him to return to Reshimbagh for clearer footage.
However, Shaikh, who was petrified on seeing the security outside RSS headquarters, did not try to film or take pictures of the place again. Omar, miffed with Shaikh’s response, was stern with Shaikh, who had decided to switch off his mobile phone data and discontinue communication.
In January 2022, JeM operative Shaikh’s two-day visit to Nagpur was revealed by Jammu and Kashmir security forces. The case was subsequently taken up by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from whom State ATS took Shaikh into their custody. “ATS had some technical investigation underway regarding Shaikh. On the basis of that technical evidence, ATS wanted to quiz Shaikh, for which he was taken into custody,” said a source.