JAMMU, OCTOBER 8: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday claimed to have recovered half a dozen explosive devices from a militant hideout in Kathua district.
According to police, the seized explosives included three IEDs and an equal number of sticky bombs. The seizure followed disclosures by an already arrested Jaish-e-Mohammad militant Zakir Hussain Bhat who was arrested by police from Kathua district’s Billawar area on Sunday last.
Zakir’s apprehension followed revelations by a Lashar-e-Toiba militant Mohammad Aslam of Basantgarh who was also arrested on Sunday last in connection with two blasts in Udhampur town on the intervening night of September 28-29 in which two people were injured ahead of Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the Union Territory on October 4. Both the modules were associated with each other.
Meanwhile, sources said that the explosives seized at Zakir’s instance in Kathua appear to have been dropped through a drone from Pakistan side. The arrested Jaish militant Zakir was in touch with his Pakistani handler Ghulam Fareed who along with two others was apprehended by J&K Police from a hotel here in 2008. Fareed was deported to Pakistan after the completion of his jail term in 2018.
