The J&K police on Thursday said it has arrested a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant—a government employee involved in the Narwal blast in Jammu on January 21—and recovered from his possession the first-of-its-kind ‘perfume IED’.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh said the Jammu police “after 11 days of relentless work has achieved a breakthrough in solving the case by arresting a Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Arif Ahmed, a resident of Reasi district of Jammu.”
Singh said Arif was in touch with Qasim, a Reasi resident and his uncle, Qamardin, also a resident of Reasi, but presently in Pakistan. He said Arif was involved in three IED blast incidents—Shastri Nagar, Katra, and the January 21 incident of Narwal, Jammu.
He said so far they had seen IED with explosive materials, sticky bombs and timer-fitted IEDs, but a new type of IED—perfume IED— was recovered from Arif. “This IED seems like a perfume bottle but contains explosive material,” the DGP said. “Since the IED is new to us, experts will see how harmful and how powerful it can be. We have not touched it so far.”
He said IEDs are used to target innocent people and incite communal hatred in Jammu. He added that Arif will not be scaled from service but police will prepare a strong dossier against him. He called Arif a very clever operative. “He had burnt all the evidence, including his clothes, shoes and even his mobile phone,’’ the DGP said.”
The DGP said that IEDs received by Arif were air-dropped through drones. When asked about the attack in Upper Dhangri in which six people were killed on January 1, the police chief said the investigations are in the advanced stage and information will be shared with media shortly.
