India gets custody of 2017 CRPF camp attack plotter from UAE

NEW DELHI: India has secured the deportation of Nisar Ahmed Tantray, a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist and main conspirator behind the December 2017 attack on a CRPF camp at Lethpora in Jammu & Kashmir, from the UAE. Five security personnel were martyred in the attack during the intervening night of December 30 and 31, 2017, which ended with the killing of three Jaish terrorists.

Nisar Tantray, brother of Jaish divisional commander in South Kashmir Noor Tantray who earned fame as a “midget” terrorist being just four feet tall, was brought to Delhi by a special flight on Sunday and handed over to the NIA, which is probing the Lethpora case. Noor Tantray, said to have been instrumental in establishing Jaish in the Valley, was killed in an encounter in December 2017.

A warrant of arrest had been issued against deported terrorist Nisar Tantray by a special judge, NIA court, which facilitated his deportation. The UAE has been extending exemplary cooperation in deporting fugitives, including terrorists, in the past few years. They include AgustaWestland bribery case accused Christian Michel, alleged defence middleman Deepak Talwar, apart from several Islamic State sympathisers and terrorists, including senior Indian Mujahideen operative Abdul Wahid Siddibapa and 1993 Mumbai blasts accused Farooq Takla. Tantray is believed to have escaped to the UAE earlier this year.


This was just before another accused in the Lethpora case, Fayaz Ahmad Magray, a resident of Awantipora, Pulwama, was arrested in February. The three terrorists killed during the attack were identified as Fardeen Ahmed Khandey, a resident of Tral; Manzoor Baba, a resident of Drubgram, Pulwama; and a Pakistani terrorist namely Abdul Shakoor, a resident of Rawalakot area of POK.

Fayaz, arrested by the NIA, was an active overground worker of Jaish and a key conspirator who provided logistical support such as providing shelter to terrorists.