Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 21: Army and police have foiled a major terror plot by the militants by effecting recoveries of a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives from a Maruti 800 car from Fazalpura bridge in Bandipora district of the Kashmir Valley.
Driver of the Maruti car, who was smuggling consignment of arms and explosives for the militants, managed to escape leaving behind the vehicles at check post near Fazalpura bridge last night.
A handout issued by the Defence spokesman (Ministry of Defence) Col SD Goswami said a joint mobile vehicle check post of Army troops from Bandipora and Jammu and Kashmir Police had laid the naka at Fazalpura bridge when they spotted a Maruti 800 car stopping about 300 meters short of the naka and an individual coming out of the car and running away.
Col Goswami said driver of the car initially attempted to reverse the vehicle but panicked when he couldn’t do so after observing strong presence of Army and police ahead.
“The driver then got out of the car and ran away. Troops of the joint vehicle check post chased him but he managed to escape taking advantage of the pitch darkness,” he said, adding the Maruti 800 car was immediately cordoned off and subjected to searches.
The SP Bandipora also reached the spot on receiving the information.
Recoveries made from the car included four AK-47 rifles, three AK-56 rifles, five Chinese pistols, one Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL), 15 AK-47 magazines, five pistol magazines, 35 rounds of AK-47, 13 rounds of Chinese pistol, 74 UBGL grenades, 13 Chinese grenades and 18 other grenades.
“Recovery of such a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives has dealt a crippling blow to the militants, who were planning to use the consignment for major terror activities during the Assembly elections,” official sources said.
They added that Army and police have launched massive searches in Bandipora to trace driver of Maruti 800 car, who was transporting such a big consignment of arms and explosives for the militants. The arrest of the driver would take security agencies to the militant group to whom the consignment belonged and could also yield vital clues about activities of the militants.
It may be mentioned here that the militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen were planning to carry out terror attacks during the Assembly elections to disturb them. However, security forces and police have been maintaining high alert to ensure that the militants didn’t succeed in their activities.
Follow our WhatsApp channel