Srinagar: Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh Thursday said that Pakistan was propagating terrorism in Kashmir and said that J&K Police had cracked the Narwal Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast case.
“Pakistan is infamous for triggering terrorism in Kashmir and killing thousands of innocent people across the world. They want to divide the people here on the communal lines,” Singh said addressing a news conference here.
The DGP said that J&K Police had cracked the Narwal IED blast case.
“Police have arrested one person Arif Ahmad of Jammu’s Reasi. He is a government teacher by profession and joined the Education Department in 2016 on a contract basis. He was regularised in 2016,” Singh said.
He said Arif belongs to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit that operates from Pakistan.
“He was working at the behest of Qasim, a Reasi resident, and his uncle, Qamardin, also a Reasi resident, presently in Pakistan. Both are associated with the LeT,” he said.
The J&K Police chief said that the arrested person was involved in three IED blast incidents, which included blasts at Shastri Nagar in February 2023, in Katra in May 2022, and in Narwal in January 2023.
Singh said that Police recovered “perfume IED” from his possession.
“It is very deadly. If one tries to spray it, it causes damage to the person,” he said.
“This IED was air-dropped by drones to Arif from Pakistan that he has confessed himself to,” Singh said. “In Shastri Nagar blast case, he used a timer bomb and in Katra one, he used sticky bombs.”
The DGP said that cracking this case was possible because of the hard work of the Police officials working on it.
“Otherwise, the accused has burnt all the evidence, including his clothes, shoes and even set ablaze his mobile phone. It was hard for the Police who worked over 11 days and nights to crack this case and finally we succeeded,” he said.
Singh said that Arif would not only lose his job but a strong dossier would be prepared against him.
“The aim of planting these IEDs was only to disrupt the peace and the communal harmony here. Pakistan is trying to revive terrorism in Jammu which has died here now,” he said.
The DGP also appreciated all the officers including ADGP Jammu Zone, DIG Rajouri-Poonch Range, SSP Jammu, and other Police officials for working on the case seriously and cracking it swiftly.
At least nine persons were injured after twin blasts rocked the Narwal area of Jammu on January 21.
“They had planted another IED but it was defused by the timely action of the Police. Otherwise it could have caused huge damage and its target was only the security forces,” Singh said.
He said that over a dozen organisations who had been promoting terrorism had been banned in J&K.