Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh Monday said a study group has been set up to suggest measures to strengthen security along the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar highway, following the Pulwama attack.
Singh said two suicide attacks were foiled by police withkilling of two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants after the February 14 attack inwhich 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
“We have constituted a study group which will besurveying the highway within next two days and suggest measures for furtherstrengthening the security mechanism on the vital road,” Singh toldreporters here tonight.
Sharing details about the arrest of Hizbul Mujahideensuicide bomber Owais Amin, a resident of Shopian district of south Kashmir, whomade an abortive attempt to target a Jammu-bound CRPF convoy near Banihal inRamban district on Saturday, Singh said Pakistani hand behind the unsuccessfulattack cannot be ruled out.
Amin was arrested within 36 hours of the incident by a jointteam of police and the Army near Jawahar Tunnel when he was trying to flee.
Jammu-Srinagar highway is the only all-weather road thatlinks Kashmir with rest of the country and witnesses heavy traffic movement,including vehicles of security forces moving in and out of the valley, on dailybasis.
“We are always concerned with the security of thecommuters including the convoys. Soon after this incident happened, we luckilygot timely clues and with coordinated efforts with other security forces andArmy were able to nab the culprit,” Singh said.
The arrested militant was produced before media persons butthe police chief did not share much details especially about his disclosuresduring interrogation.
“We are exercising all alert and all security measureshave been taken to maintain peace and foil militant attacks,” he said whenasked about reports of presence of more suicide attackers.
“The SOPs are being implemented to the best possibleextent but there are certain grey areas which we need to look into,” hesaid ruling out security lapse leading to the incident.
He said airlifting of all security personnel was notpossible because of the limited number of seats. “Many personnel areavailing the facility.”
Terming the arrest of Owais a “major success”, theofficer said he has given some leads and police is focusing on various aspectsincluding the persons behind this attack, where the IEDs were fabricated insidethe car.
He said the trigger mechanism for detonating the bomb wasnot perfect leading to a minor explosion in the car, while the secondary blastcould not happen.
“After the minor explosion, the militant believed thathe can run away and jumped out of the car and fled the spot. He hid himself inan orchard and returned to the highway on Saturday night, took lift in a truckto cross over to Kashmir but the alertness of the security personnel resultedin his arrest,” he said.
Singh said as per the investigation, he is affiliated toHizbul Mujahideen.
He said the militant was trying to carry out an attacksimilar to that of Pulwama as the material found from the car was enough tocause heavy damage.
“We found different types of explosives and inflammablesubstances including over 50 gelatine sticks of super power 90 grand, urea,sulphur, ammonium nitrate, two bottles of petrol, two LPG cylinders — one bigand one small, the remains of the IED which caused the minor blast and fire inthe vehicle and one unexploded IED fitted in a tiffin box,” he said.
After his arrest, the accused was put to sustainedquestioning and he confessed his role and further investigation is on, Singhsaid.