A suspected militant, who made an abortive attempt to target a CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar highway on Saturday, was arrested Monday and is being questioned, police sources said.
A CRPF vehicle had suffered slight damage when a Santro carwent up in flames after an explosion at Tethar village, seven kms from Banihal,shortly after a Jammu-bound convoy crossed the Jawahar Tunnel, the gateway toKashmir valley.
The driver of the private vehicle managed to flee before thefire engulfed the vehicle and turned it into a mangled heap of iron.
The inspection of the vehicle and surrounding areas led tothe recovery of an LPG cylinders, a jerrycan filled with petrol, gelatin stick,urea and sulphur — material which is used for fabricating the ImprovisedExplosive Devices (IED), police said.
A massive hunt was launched and finally the suspectedmilitant was arrested in the early hours of Monday and is being questioned, thesources said.
The sources, however, did not reveal whether the arrest wasmade from Banihal or somewhere else.
A letter recovered from the scene had identified the driveras a Hizbul Mujahideen operative, whomentioned his intention to carry out a February 14 Pulwama type attack whichleft 40 CRPF personnel dead after a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant drove anexplosive-laden vehicle and targeted a CRPF convoy.
The forensic experts and a team of National InvestigationAgency (NIA) visited Banihal and inspected the scene to help in theinvestigation.
The driver of the private vehicle managed to flee before the fire engulfed the vehicle and turned it into a mangled heap of iron.