The police on Saturday arrested a terrorist Mohammad Ramzan Sohil who is accused of having exploded a sticky bomb that killed one person and injured 17 others in a busy place in Udhampur. The explosion occurred on 9 March at the busy Slathia Chowk in Udhampur which is the headquarters of the strategic Northern Command of the Indian Army.

ADGP(Jammu Range) Mukesh Singh said that after a lot of investigations the police zeroed in on Ramzan who during interrogation confessed to having planted the sticky bomb IED on the directions of his Pakistani handler Mohammad Amin @ Khubaib of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who was also a resident of Kathawa Thathri in Doda district but was at present operating from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).

Ramzan’s father Mohammad Ishaq Sohil was also a trained terrorist and was killed in 2003, said the ADGP.

Ramzan was in contact with Pakistani handler Khubaib through social media. He was instructed to fix one sticky bomb IED at Slathia Chowk and others to be placed at some safe place for future use. On his disclosure, another sticky bomb IED has been recovered from the same place.

The ADGP said that on 23 March 2022 Ramzan received an amount of Rs. 30,000 in his J&K bank account for the blast he carried out at Udhampur as was promised by the handler Khubaib. The said amount was deposited in the account of Ramzan by Khurshed Ahmed, a resident of Motla Dessa, Doda under the direction of LeT group handler Khubaib.

Khurshed was also arrested in the said case. Khurshed’s brother-in-law Bilal Ahmed Butt is a trained terrorist of the LeT group operating in Pakistan since 2002. Khurshed is handling the monetary channel of Khubaib.

The third accused Nisar Ahmed Khan, resident of Dhani Bhaderwah, was a trained terrorist and remained active in the belt of Doda district during the year 2001 to 2006 with LeT. On the directions of Khubaib, he picked the sticky bomb IEDs twice, one in the month of December 2021 and the other in the month of January 2022 from Belicharana, Jammu, the location and the picture of the which was sent to him on his suspicious application.

On his disclosure, one sticky bomb IED was recovered from Kursari village in the forest area of Bhaderwah, Doda District. Investigation of the case is going on and more arrests are expected in near future, said the ADGP.