Car belongs to active Hizbul militant: Police

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Police have said an active Hizbul Mujahideen militant operating in south Kashmir is the owner of the vehicle, which security forces intercepted on Thursday while foiling a car bombing plot similar to the 2019 Pulwama attack.

The vehicle, a white Santro, was fitted with at least 40kg explosives and was found lying abandoned in a village near Rajpora in Pulwama district, where a similar attack on February 14, 2019, had left 40 CRPF men dead and brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan on the brink of war.

The car was not registered in the Kashmir valley, but in the Jammu division, police said.

A police officer, privy to the investigations, said the Hizbul militant, who is active in south Kashmir over the last two years and the owner of the car, is still at large, but efforts are on to nab him. He has been identified as Hidayatullah Malik, a resident of Sharat pora in Shopian.

Hidayatullah’s father Abdul Hameed said they had a Santro car earlier, which was sold to a known person.

“I have no information about the car and we are not in touch with Hidayatullah since he left home,” he said.

Meanwhile police have detained Hidaytullah’s brother, who is studying in Punjab and had come home recently.

On Thursday, Vijay Kumar, inspector general of police, (IGP), Kashmir zone, had said security forces received both human and technical intelligence inputs last week that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which had claimed responsibility for the 2019 Pulwama attack, and Hizbul Mujahideen were planning a major fidayeen (suicide) attack using a car bomb. “On Wednesday, J&K Police, army and CRPF placed multiple nakas after leads about the attack emerged.

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 driver left the car behind and fled towards a forest under the darkness of the night,’’ Kumar had said. The police are also seeking an expert opinion on the nature of explosives, which were destroyed through a controlled explosion on Thursday morning, that was fitted with the car.