Jammu hit could be tied to attack on LeT chief Hafiz Saeed's home

Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has emerged as the prime suspect behind Sunday's drone attack on the IAF facility at Jammu with the J&K Police and Central agencies looking at a possible link with the near simultaneous arrest of an operative of The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar affiliate, in Jammu with an IED he meant to plant at a crowded 'Hindu-dominated' area, including temples.

Apart from the TRF operative, two other LeT men have been picked up, including senior LeT commander Nadeem Abrar who was arrested in Srinagar on Monday and another from Shopian. Sources said they are being quizzed to establish a possible LeT link to Sunday's blasts on IAF camp at Jammu airport technical area.

"While the probe is at an early stage, Lashkar is being suspected as the outfit has deployed most of the drones in the recent past, used to drop huge quantities of weapons and ammunition etc. Jaish was involved in an odd case, but Lashkar has popularised arms drop through drones. The possibility of LeT launching drones with payloads, can thus not be ruled out," J&K DGP Dilbag Singh told TOI on Monday.


While he did not elaborate further, a theory is that Lashker is irked at the recent bombings outside its chief Hafiz Saeed Mohammad's residence in Lahore, the perpetrators of which are yet to be identified. The drone attack on a military facility in India was possibly to showcase its new capabilities.

Sources told TOI that National Security Guard (NSG) has, on the instructions of the ministry of home affairs, deployed its anti-drone surveillance systems at the Jammu airport. An official, however, said the purpose was to test its effectiveness and, if found largely foolproof, extend its use to other sensitive installations. A source told TOI that while the threat of drones has been acknowledged for long, with new anti-drone technologies being acquired and tested by NTRO, NSG etc for last two years, their effectiveness leaves much to be desired.