JAMMU/NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Sunday foiled what could probably have caused a repeat of the 2019 Pulwama terror attack by nabbing a man, operating on the instructions of Pakistan’s Al-Badr-Tanzeem terror outfit, from a bus station with an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing about 6.5 kilograms.
The Al-Badr operative Sohail Bashir Shah, 21, a resident of Newa in Pulwama and a former nursing student at a college in Chandigarh, was arrested on the intervening night of February 13 and 14.
Jammu zone IGP Mukesh Singh in a press briefing on Sunday informed that Sohail was arrested after police received specific inputs that terror groups were planning an attack on the anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack. “Last night we arrested a person named Sohail and recovered around 6-6.5 kgs of IED from his possession. During interrogation the accused disclosed that he received orders from Pakistan’s Al-Badr-Tanzeem to plant an IED in Jammu,” he said.
The IGP added, “The arrested person revealed that he was given 3-4 targets to place the IED, including the Raghunath temple, bus stand, railway station and the jewellers’ market in Jammu. After placing the IED, he was supposed to fly to Srinagar, where he was to be received by a person named Athar Shakeel Khan, who is a high-ranking overground worker (OGW) of Al-Badr-Tanzeem.”
The IGP added that a person named Qazi Waseem was also lifted from Chandigarh as he was aware of the matter while a person named Abid Nabi was detained for questioning. Police also recovered 15 small IEDs and six pistols along with ammunition from Samba on Saturday night.
Singh said, “During routine patrolling, a team found some suspicious material in the form of two packets hidden in bushes near Rakh Jhang nallah. Six pistols, 12 pistol magazines, 179 live pistol rounds and 15 white bottles containing IED-making material were recovered from the spot.”
The IED recovery was made after the arrest of two top terrorists from Kunjwani in Jammu and Bari Brahmana area of Samba district in Jammu region in the last one week.
Al-Badr-Tanzeem, which once started as a terror outfit with US forces in Afghanistan as its adversary, has been one of the 40 listed terror organisations banned by the US since 2005 and by India under the Unlawful activities (prevention), Act, 2004.
Pulwana anniv
The remembrance for the ghastly Pulwama terror attack was a short solemn affair this year due to the Covid outbreak, said CRPF IG (Kashmir), Deepak Rattan.
“The event was held by connecting all our battalions of Kashmir via video-conferencing and CRPF DG. We have made a museum here. The anniversary would always be close to our hearts as the martyrdom of 40 jawans remains etched in our memories forever,” he said.
He also said that a lot of changes have been made in the CRPF including in its SOPs, equipment and training over the past two years after Lethpora attack.
The movement of jawans now is largely being done by air and stores are ferried by road, he added.