Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh on Thursday said that Police have cracked the twin IED blasts that took place here at Narwal and arrested one government teacher associated with Lashkar-e-Tobia terrorist outfit.
“The Jammu Police team deserve applauds for solving the January 21 IED blasts at Narwal,” DGP Dilbag Singh here told reporters at a press conference.
He said that day-night working of the Police team cracked the case and with this, two more cases, one of Katra IED blast and second of 2022 Shastri Nagar blast have also been solved.
The DGP showered praises to ADGP Jammu Zone Mukesh Singh and his team DIG Shakti Pathak, SSP Jammu Chandan Kohli, SP South Mamta Sharma and other officers for their efforts in solving the case.
“One Arif, resident of Reasi, associated with Lashkar-e-Tobia was arrested during investigation and he spilled the beans when interrogated and confessed his crime,” said the Police chief.
Singh said that Arif, who was recruited as ReT teacher in 2010 and was later regularised in 2016 in J&K Education Department, was in touch with his handler Qasim, operating from Pakistan.
“He (Qasim) gave directions to Arif to carry out IED blasts in Jammu,” said DGP adding that along with Narwal blasts, Arif also planted IEDs in a passenger bus at Katra and at Shastri Nagar in 2022.
The maternal uncle of Arif, namely Qamar Din is also settled in Karachi, Pakistan, adding the DGP said, “one live IED was also recovered from accused Arif, which he was directed to use at some crowded or religious place to trigger panic.”
Three IEDs, transported through drone were handed over to him out of which two were used in Narwal and one was recovered from his possession, which is first of its kind “perfume IED”, said the DGP.
“It is also a new kind of IED and our expert teams are defusing it,” he added.
He further added that the IED used in Katra bus blast was a sticky bomb and at Shastri Nagar, it was a timer.
“Two bombs exploded at Narwal in a gap of 20 minutes with a motive to harm the security forces in the second explosion that contained more than 1-kg Explosive and the first IED was of 750 grams,” he added.
He said that on Wednesday, Rajouri Police also busted a module of Lashkar-e-Tobia and recovered IEDs from the possession of three persons.
“Pakistan is always trying to create disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir and IEDs were planted with an aim to disturb communal harmony in peaceful Jammu but we will never allow them to succeed in their nefarious designs,” said the police chief.
He said that J&K Police is for the safety of the people and is always on its toes to foil all such attempts being made to disturb the harmony of the region.
