NIA arrests suspect in July IED blast that killed Assam Rifles soldier

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made the first arrest in the case of the July 13 roadside bomb blast in Nagaland's Chümoukedima district that killed an Assam Rifles havildar and injured four other soldiers, The Morung Express reported, citing multiple sources.

The suspect, a 35-year-old man, was picked up from Jalukie in Peren district on Thursday, October 29. He was produced before the Special NIA Court on Friday and remanded to the agency's custody, after which he was taken to an undisclosed location for questioning, the report said. According to the paper's sources, he is the same man the state police had briefly detained for questioning soon after the explosion.

The NIA had not issued a public statement on the arrest at the time of writing, and the man's name has not been made public.

What happened on July 13

The improvised explosive device (IED), believed to have been hidden in a parked autorickshaw, went off at about 2:30 pm a few hundred metres from the Khovanalla iron bridge, on the road leading to the Assam Rifles Training Centre at Shoxuvi. It struck a pickup truck carrying Assam Rifles personnel.

Havildar Mohammad Iqbal of the 28 Assam Rifles battalion, a native of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, was killed. Four other soldiers were injured, three of them critically, and a civilian was hurt by flying debris. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Governor Nand Kishore Yadav and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio condemned the blast at the time, with Rio calling it "a cowardly act" and promising that those responsible would be found.

How the case reached the NIA

The Nagaland Police announced a Rs 50,000 reward on July 17 for information on the attackers, describing the blast as a terrorist act and seeking leads on anyone who planned, financed, sheltered or helped carry it out. The post-blast unit of the National Security Guard also examined the site.

On July 27, the Union Home Ministry handed the case, registered at Chümoukedima police station, to the NIA under Sections 6(5) and 8 of the NIA Act, 2008, citing the gravity of the offence and its implications for national security.

Why it matters

The blast was among the deadliest attacks on security forces in Nagaland in recent years, coming in a state that has largely seen peace since the Naga ceasefires. Three months on, the arrest is the first public sign of progress in the probe. Investigators are expected to focus on who else was involved in planning and executing the attack, and whether any armed group was behind it.