On the second anniversary of the Pulwama car bombing today (Sunday), a major attack was averted as the Jammu and Kashmir police detected a seven-kilogram Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near a crowded general bus stand area in Jammu.
Around 6 to 6.5 kg (IED) was also possessed by a person named Sohail. The police was on high alert as they had inputs of terror groups plotting an attack on the anniversary. The accused was nabbed by the police and an arrest was made yesterday night. With this recovery, the police foiled a major plan of the terrorists to set off an explosion on the second anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack.
During the investigation, "Sohail revealed that he studies in Chandigarh and had received message from Pakistan's Al Badr Tanzeem to plant IED here," said Jammu Inspector General of Police (IG) Mukesh Singh.
Sohail was given three-four target locations to place the IED, after which he was supposed to take a flight to Srinagar where an Over Ground Worker of Al Badr Tanzeem named Athar Shakeel Khan would have received him, Singh said in a statement to ANI. "Two more accused, Qazi Waseem from Chandigarh and Abid Nabi too were also arrested in the case," Singh added.
Last night, the police also recovered 15 small IEDs and 6 pistols from Samba.
Two years ago on February 14, 2019, 40 Indian soldiers were martyred in one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama. After the deadly attack, a Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had claimed responsibility for this terror attack. A 22-year-old suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the bus. The convoy had 78 buses in which around 2,500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar. The attack, which was reported near Awantipora at nearly 3:15 pm resulted in the death of 40 CRPF jawans, while many others were left injured.
