Could have been set off by remote or timers
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 22: In a first, 15 small Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) recovered by police in Ramgarh sector of Samba district on February 13 have turned out to be sticky bombs which are capable of causing extensive damage besides being very hard to detect as they get attached with the vehicles through magnet.
Police officials said the matter is still under investigation and it is being ascertained whether the IEDs were sticky bombs. However, they confirmed that the IEDs were “deadly explosive devices’’ as though small in size they had been fitted with magnet with which they could have been easily attached with the vehicles.
“The small IEDs were fabricated in the manner that they didn’t require any device like pressure cooker or tiffin to be planted and could have been attached to a vehicle. As they were very small, it was very tough to easily detect them,’’ sources said, adding the IEDs had been connected with wires to trigger explosion.
Describing recovery of the IEDs as “very significant’’ and “major success’’, sources said preliminary investigations point out that the devices had been dropped from Pakistan using drones. However, the matter is part of investigation.
The IEDs, according to sources, could have been detonated either by remote control devices or set off by the timers.
Earlier also, there had been some cases in which arms, ammunition and explosives had been dropped through drones by Pakistan on the International Border in Jammu as well as Punjab. While some consignments had fallen in the hands of militants, others were detected and recovered by the Border Security Force (BSF).
“Recently recovered IEDs are cone-like metal structure, which is a more professional work. It cannot be assembled by the locals. It is a finished product. The strategy to use the IEDs was to create fear,’’ sources said.
“When a normal IED explodes, it causes damage on all sides. But the ones here have a cone-like structure, which makes them uni-directional. That means, if it’s placed on a bus or car if the direction of the explosion goes, more and more damage can happen,’’ they added.
It may be mentioned here that police had recovered 15 small Improvised Explosive Devices and six pistols besides ammunition from Ramgarh sector near the International Border in Samba district on February 13.
However, no arrests were made from the spot and it was believed that the consignment of arms and explosives had either been dropped through drone or sent from cross-border tunnel by the Pakistani Rangers and the militants.
The BSF has detected number of cross-border tunnels along the International Border in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts recently. The tunnels had been used for infiltration of the militants into Jammu and Kashmir. They had also been used even for exfiltration by the militants from here to Pakistan.
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