IED recovered on Srinagar-Jammu highway in Nowgam, defused

An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) recovered early this morning in Kenihama area on Pantha-Chowk-Nowgam road stretch on the outskirts of Srinagar was defused by a bomb disposal squad after which traffic was resumed on the highway, officials said.

The train services that started after a gap of 11 months also resumed normally.

News agency KNO quoted a police official as saying that the IED was planted on the Pantha Chowk-Nowgam road, a few hundred meters away from the Nowgam Railway station near a bridge.

It was spotted by the Road Opening Party (RoP) and police early this morning after which the BDS was called to check the object that turned out to be an IED fitted in a tin box, the official said.

He said as a precautionary measure, traffic was stopped on the road stretch and the BDS checked the object and later defused it successfully.

The official said that the IED may have been planted to target the security forces, especially convoys adding that the train service between Baramulla and Banihal also resumed normally as per schedule.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar confirmed to KNO that the IED has been defused successfully and traffic has been restored in the area.

Pertinently, Srinagar district is on a high alert with police and the paramilitary forces carrying out intense frisking of the pedestrians and commuters in the wake of recent militant strikes in the city that left a eatery owner injured and two cops dead in Dalgate and Baghat areas respectively.