New Delhi:  The Srinagar-based Jaish-e-Mohammad operative Ashiq Baba has claimed that the deadly attack on Pulwama police-lines in 2017 in which eight security personnel died was led by JeM Kashmir terrorist Mufti Waqas. This has spilled the beans on Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad’s activities.

The details of JeM’s actions form part of Baba’s interrogation after his detention for his alleged role in the attack on the Army base at Nagrota. His apprehension, said sources, is proving to be a mine of information as he had been to JeM camps in Pakistan and met top leaders close to Jaish boss Maulana Masood Azhar and can provide a description of activities and jihadi leaders he met.

The Pulwama attack marked the increasingly prominent role Jaish has been playing. Three JeM attackers, wearing Indian combat uniforms, had struck in the early hours on August 26, 2017 in the camp which also had families of personnel.

A highly wanted terrorist, Waqas, was killed in an encounter with security forces in early March this year. He was also responsible for the February 11, 2018 attack at Sunjuwan army camp, in which a junior commissioned officer (JCO) was killed.

The accounts of Ashiq Baba, who travelled to Pakistan several times between 2015 and 2017 to meet JeM leaders including its emir Maulana Masood Azhar’s brother Abdul Rauf and Maulana Mufti Asghar, are helping the security forces fill gaps in information about Jaish’s operations and planning.

Baba had travelled to JeM’s Bahawalpur headquarters after obtaining Pakistani visas on Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s recommendation, said sources. Baba is being questioned by NIA. Baba is understood to have claimed that one Abdulla is specifically in charge of launching Pakistani terrorists into India from the Kashmir side of the border.