Pulwama-style attack averted in J&K: Police
Security forces seize car laden with 45kg explosives
SRINAGAR: A car carrying around 45 kg concealed explosives was seized from Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, the Union Territory police said on Thursday and added the recovery prevented an attack similar to the one that left 40 paramilitary troopers dead in February 2019 and brought India and Pakistan on the brink of war.
Vijay Kumar, the inspector general of police (Kashmir), said they had human and technical intelligence inputs, indicating that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the 2019 attack, and Hizbul Mujahideen were planning a big suicide attack using a car bomb.
“On Wednesday, security forces set up multiple nakas [barricades] after the leads about the attack. In the evening, a naka party directed a car to stop, but it sped away. At another naka, warning shots were fired on the vehicle. The car’s driver left the vehicle behind and fled towards a forest under the darkness of the night,’’ Kumar said.
He said the modus operandi used was the same as in the 2019 car bomb attack in Pulwama.
Kumar further said they suspect Adil of Hizbul Mujahideen, who also works with JeM, and Fauji bhai, a Pakistani JeM commander in Pulwama, were involved in the planning of the failed attack.
Investigators said the car carried a fake number plate of a motorbike registered in the name of a BSF officer Sahil Kumar at regional transport office in Kathua district .
DGP Dilbagh Singh, who shared the pictures of the Santro car, said, “It was a false number plate. The idea was to mislead the security forces.”