A home Ministry team probing the IED attack on NC president Omar Abdullah and his father has indicated security lapse on the part of the state police which apparently skipped norms on advanced reccee. The team has, however, has yet to determine if the jammer fitted to the vehicle was at fault.An eight-member team of technical experts that visited Kashmir found that had the sweeping and bomb detection procedures been followed, the blast may have been averted. It is more or less clear that the blast was triggered off by a remote-controlled device.Omar, who gets Z-plus category protection, had narrowly escaped a bid on his life in Sarnal Village in south Kashmir exactly a week ago. His father, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, was right behind him.‘‘Proper sanitisation of the area was not done despite advance information that two Z-plus category protectees, Omar and Farooq Abdullah, were visiting the area to attend a prayer ceremony for a slain NC leader,’’ an official said.The team has also sealed the jammer, which bore the brunt of the landmine blast, to analyse whether it failed in detecting the explosive or human error was involved. ‘‘Prima facie, it seems that the jammer was working properly but the explosive used was of a different frequency,’’ the official added.The team found that the Abdullahs had not been provided bullet-proof cars despite both of them being Central government protectees, and also that the duo were forced to share a jammer, contrary to prescribed norms of the Central security agencies to the state government.
