6.5kg IED found near bus stand in Jammu
Arrested Al-badr operative says Raghunath Temple, Jammu Railway Station, general bus stand, Lakhdatta Bazaar were targets
JAMMU: On the eve of the second anniversary of the Pulwama terror attack, the police recovered an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing 6.5 kilogrammes from a member of the al-badr terrorist group in the always crowded Jammu bus stand on Saturday, and claimed to have averted a major attack
“For the past three to four days we were getting Intel inputs that on the anniversary of the Pulwama attack, terror groups wanted to carry out a big attack in Jammu. Therefore, we were on a high alert,” IGP (Jammu zone) Mukesh Singh said. “Late Saturday, our patrol nabbed a man from the bus stand area with a bag and recovered a 6.5 kg IED from it.” The terrorist, a student of a nursing college in Chandigarh, has been identified as Suhail Bashir of Pulwama.
Sunday marked the second anniversary of the Pulwama bombing in which a car packed with explosives rammed a bus that was part of a CRPF convoy, killing 40 troopers, in an attack that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of an armed conflict.
IGP Singh said that during questioning Suhail revealed that Pakistan-based handlers of the al-badr had assigned him the job of planting the powerful IED in any of three to four areas of Jammu city. “Raghunath Temple, Jammu railway station, general bus stand and Lakhdatta Bazaar (jewellers’ market) were the targets, “he said.
After planting the IED he had to take a flight to Srinagar where a top leader of the al-badr, Athar Shakeel Khan, was to receive him. The IGP said two more men — Qazi Waseem from Chandigarh and Abid Nabi — who had information about the planned attack, had also been arrested.
Director general of police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said the police had recently also arrested Hidayatullah Malik and Zahoor
Ahmad Rather, the self styled chiefs of the Lashkar-e-mustafa, an offshoot of the Jaish-e-mohammad terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, and the Resistance Front, an offshoot of Lashkar-e-taiba, from Jammu.
The IED recovery comes close on the heels of the arrest of two top terrorists from Kunjwani in Jammu and Bari Brahmana area of Samba.
Zahoor Ahmad Rather, a top terrorist affiliated with the Resistance Front, who was wanted in connection with the killing of three BJP workers and a policeman in south Kashmir last year, was arrested in Bari Brahmana area of Samba on Saturday. On February 6, the selfstyled commander of the Lashkar-e-mustafa, Hidayatullah Malik, alias Hasnain, was held from Kunjwani area.
“Obviously there are now attempts by Pakistan and various terror outfits to create disturbances in the Jammu region,” said a senior police officer.