Slain Jaish men had left IED on Jammu-Srinagar NH for aides to activate

JAMMU: Three Jaish-e-Mohammad infiltrators slain in an encounter at Bann toll plaza near Nagrota on Friday had planned to carry out an IED blast on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in a few days. Before their truck was intercepted by an unarmed constable who was injured in the firefight, the trio had even placed the improvised explosive device (IED) at a spot on the highway for their aides to activate later.They had also left an AK-47 rifle and ammunition — capable of piercing through level-3 steel core bulletproof vehicles — for the aides, a police spokesperson said on Saturday.
Police said the Pakistani terrorists were carrying a huge quantity of automatic weapons, ammunition and communication equipment, and were on their way to carry out a major terror strike in J&K. During interrogation, arrested truck driver Sameer Dar — a cousin of Pulwama suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar — revealed that the module had already sent some terrorists to the Valley earlier. Those slain in Friday’s encounter were the remaining members of the squad formed by JeM for the operation. Sameer claimed he could have easily passed the toll plaza without any trouble had the infiltrators not opened fire at the unarmed constable, Bhom Raj, who helped avert a major tragedy by detecting the truck and an L-shaped cavity housing the terrorists.
Soon after the holed-up terrorists shot Bhom Raj, security personnel stationed at the toll plaza retaliated, killing one terrorist on the spot. Two other infiltrators jumped down a gorge into a forest area, where they were later shot dead after a fierce gunfight, said a CPRF officer.
Along with Sameer, two of his aides — suspected JeM overground workers and part of the bigger terror plan — were arrested on Friday morning. The aides have been identified as Sartaj Mantoo and Asif Malik, both residents of Pulwama’s Kakpora area. The Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police also detained five more truck operators from Rhembal and Udhampur the same evening. All five — belonging to Kashmir’s Pulwama and Ganderbal districts — had spoken to Sameer over the phone, but their involvement with the terror module is being investigated.
Even as fence-cutters were recovered from the slain infiltrators, security agencies aren’t ruling out the possibility that the terrorists entered India through an underground tunnel dug along the International Border (IB) with help from Pakistani Rangers. Sameer had picked them up around 2am on Friday from Dayalachak area in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district. “The infiltration could either be a lapse on part of the BSF personnel manning the IB, or someone may have helped them cross over to India in exchange for money,” a senior officer, who was part of the anti-insurgency operation, said.
J&K Police have floated tenders for the procurement of first-ever liquid explosive detectors (LED) to minimize threats and attempts by terrorists to target security personnel in the Union Territory. LED will help in timely detection of liquid explosives like gelatin, etc. The tenders come after security forces recently busted a terror module and seized at least 200 gelatin sticks and a suicide vest, said a senior cop.
CRPF director general A P Maheshwari arrived in Kashmir from New Delhi on Saturday to laud the alert security personnel for having averted a major terror strike in the Valley. He complimented them for their role in the Nagrota anti-insurgency operation and awarded them citations.