Poonch Shiva Temple Blast: Accused Charge-Sheeted by J&K Probe Agency
The SIA sources said that Aziz had told his interrogators that he carried out the grenade attack at the temple on the instructions received from Ahmed, who had exfiltrated to Pakistan in 2001 to join proscribed outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and later became a member of the the Jammu Kashmir Gaznavi Force (JKGF)
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir State Investigation Agency (SIA) has filed a chargesheet in a Jammu court against an alleged “terrorist associate” and his Pakistan-based handler, accused of being involved in a grenade attack on a place of worship in the Surankote area of the Union Territory’s frontier Poonch district.
In the incident which took place on November 15, 2023 a Hindu temple had suffered damage. The accused have been identified as Abdul Aziz, resident of Hari Safeda village of Surankote, and his relative Nazir Ahmed alias Naziroo alias Ali Khan who currently operates from Pakistan.
The SIA sources said that Aziz had told his interrogators that he carried out the grenade attack at the temple on the instructions received from Ahmed, who had exfiltrated to Pakistan in 2001 to join proscribed outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and later became a member of the the Jammu Kashmir Gaznavi Force (JKGF).
They said that towards the end of 2022, Ahmed re-established contact with Aziz through encrypted messaging applications using Pakistan-based numbers. “During this time, he radicalized and recruited Aziz into HM and then JKGF, instructing him to carry out grenade attacks in Poonch district to further the terror outfits’ agenda and ideology,” they added.
On October 19 last year, Anand Jain, the then Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of Jammu, had claimed to have solved several grenade attack cases in Poonch with the arrest of two terrorists of the (JKGF) including Aziz in the district. He had told a press conference in Jammu that Aziz was nabbed by a joint team of the J&K, the Army’s 37 Rashtriya Rifles and 38th Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) which also recovered two hand grenades from his possession.
He had claimed that, during investigation, one more grenade was recovered from his house and his accomplice Munawar Hussain was also arrested along with a pistol, one magazine and nine rounds
Jain had called their arrest a "very big achievement" for the security agencies and said that they were part of a larger conspiracy and had tried to create terror in Poonch district by carrying out grenade attacks at various locations, including a temple, a gurdwara, an Army camp and a hospital, “to harm brotherhood."
While Aziz was accused of hurling grenades at the Shiv temple in Surankote on November 15; Gurdwara Mahant Sahib in Poonch on March 26; Army sentry post in Kamsar, Poonch in June; and a school ground near CRPF sentry post on August 14 (2023), Hussain had allegedly lobbed a grenade near district hospital residential quarters on July 18 that year.
They were also accused of pasting anti-national posters at different locations in Surankote, including government high school in Hari, Dhundak, Sanai, and Eidgah-Hari. As per the police claim, these posters were printed at Hussain's house and pasted in August 2023 on the directions of their handler “to create fear among the public”.
The police had claimed to have arrested another member of this module identified as Muhammad Shabir, a resident of Daryala village of Poonch, along with a large quantity of explosives on September 12, 2023, and said that it was Aziz who had given the explosives to him.
The SIA sources said that Ahmed not only indoctrinated and recruited Aziz but also supplied him with hand grenades and gave him detailed instructions for the execution of the attack on the temple through encrypted communication channels. The sources also said that the investigation in the case revealed a wider conspiracy by the Pakistan-sponsored HM to destabilize J&K by spreading terror, inciting communal violence, and undermining public peace by creating fear among the common people.
Meanwhile, the security forces on Monday arrested two “terrorist associates” in DK Pora area of South Kashmir's Shopian district. The officials said that the duo was rounded up at a naka (makeshift check-post) laid jointly by the local police, the Army's 34 RR, and the CRPF 178 battalion. They claimed that two pistols, four grenades and other incriminating materials were recovered from them following which a case under the relevant provision of the law was filed at the concerned police station and investigations taken.