Fresh recovery of arms and ammunition, including sticky or magnet bombs, on the disclosure of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ‘commander’ Talib Hussain on Monday forced the security agencies to widen the probe beyond the three blasts that took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri this year.
“The probe is on. We are investigating Hussain’s role in other cases too,” a senior official said.
Hussain, who worked with the BJP for several years from Rajouri district, had access to top leaders and party offices in the Jammu province. A BJP leader’s house also came under grenade attack in August in 2021, in which a two-year-old child died. The police are working on the links of Hussain “within and outside the Valley” and “his role in the militant activities in the Pir Panjal valley”.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday said they seized six sticky bombs, a pistol and three grenades in Reasi district on the disclosure of Hussain, who along with his aide Faisal Ahmed Dar from south Kashmir’s Pulwama, were arrested in the district.
Arms and explosives recovered by police from a terrorist hideout at Draj village, in Rajouri district, on July 4, 2022 after the arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ‘commander’ Talib Hussain Shah. | Photo Credit: PTI
Sticky bombs are the latest acquisition by militants in Jammu and Kashmir. The magnetic bombs with timers can be attached to a target vehicle without being noticed.
The police said a pistol, three grenades, two magazines of Glock Pistol, one magazine of 30 bore pistol, one under barrel grenade launched, 75 rounds of AK rifle, 15 pistol rounds, four rounds of pistol 30 bore and IED remote with antenna were recovered from a hideout in Reasi.
Sticky bomb attacks
The Jammu province witnessed a sticky bomb attack in Udhampur in March this year, in which one person died. Three persons were held in the case. An explosion inside a vehicle carrying pilgrims left four dead in Katra in May this year. The NIA is probing the incident. Sources said the use of sticky bomb in the incident was not being ruled out by the investigating agencies.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir police, Hussain was behind the three blasts in Rajouri’s Kotranka town and Shahpur in March and April this year, which left four person injured. The police described Hussain as “the mastermind of all terrorist activities in the Pir Panjal valley” and the brain behind the “recruitment of locals from Rajouri”. Two of his recruits were arrested in June.
Hussain had received three major consignments of arms and ammunition from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir in January, March and April this year “to revive militancy in the Jammu province”, according to the police.
