J&K: 'Perfume IED' Recovered From LeT Terrorist Behind Twin Blasts in Narwal

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir police have recovered a one-of-a-kind 'perfume IED' from a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist who was involved in the twin blasts in Narwal on January 21. The LeT terrorist who was also a government employee had a "perfume IED" in his possession which the police have recovered. 

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbagh Singh, said that after 11 days of hard work, the Jammu police achieved major success in the form of the arrest of one Arif Ahmed, a resident of Reasi district of Jammu.

"Arif is a government employee and is an active militant of the Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit. He was working at the behest of Qasim, a Reasi resident, and his uncle Qamardin, also a Reasi resident, presently in Pakistan, who are part of LeT," the DGP said.

He said Arif was involved in three IED blast incidents—Shastri Nagar, Katra, and the January 21 incident of Narwal, Jammu.

"So far, we had seen IEDs with explosive materials, sticky bombs, and timer-fitted IEDs but a new type of IED was recovered from Arif which is 'perfume IED'. This IED is in a bottle form and seems like a perfume bottle but contains explosive material," the DGP said, adding that "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 that the main aim of these IEDs is to target innocent people and to trigger communal hatred in the Jammu region. "Arif will not only lose his job but a strong dossier will be prepared against him. He was a very clever operative. He had burnt all the evidence including his clothes, shoes and his mobile phone as well. But police worked hard on even small inputs and leads that led to the arrest of Arif," he said.

The DGP said that IEDs received by Arif were air-dropped through drones. “He has confessed to the crime,” he said. 

Asked about further links of Arif and possible Kashmir connection, the DGP said that so far it has not been seen that Kashmiri youth are coming to Jammu for terrorism or for that matter Jammu youth going to Kashmir. “Further investigations are on,” he said.