Militant bid to blow up railway track in J
Srinagar, Nov 24 (UNI) Police today claimed to have foiled a militant attempt to blow up a railway track in Jammu and Kashmir when they detected and defused a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near the line in Kathua district.
Elsewhere in the state, a top Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HUJI) commander was killed in an inter-group clash while security forces averted a major tragedy when they detected and defused a powerful IED from a hotel overnight, an official spokesman said today.
A UNI report from Jammu, quoting SHO Kathua Kuljit Singh, said a 2.5 kg IED was detected and later defused in the vicinity of a railway track in Kathua district this afternoon.
He said the IED, hidden near the railway track in Barwal village and noticed by police constable Balbir Singh, was successfully defused by a bomb disposal squad.
Sources said with the detection of the powerful IED near the railway track, police averted a major disaster as not only the line but a train as well could have been the target of the militants.
Another report from Jammu said a self-styled HUJI district commander, Abdul Rashid alias Sarwar, was killed by another militant, Bashir Ahmed alias Sabha, in an inter-group clash at Tatwan forests in Chatroo area of Kishtwar district late last night.
The spokesman said an IED was detected in the New Lite Hotel complex, where militants had taken refuge and were engaged in a fierce three-day-long gun-battle with security forces from November 9 to 11.
Two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants and a Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in the gunfight.
A bomb disposal squad later defused the IED, he said, adding there were no reports of loss of life or injury in the incident.
Suspected militants hurled a hand grenade towards the house of one Abdul Rashid Tantray at Tujar Sharief in Sopore.
The grenade exploded in the compound of the house, resulting in damage to the outer walls of the structure, the spokesman said.
However, no casualty was reported in the incident.
The spokesman said a Hizbul Mujahideen militant surrendered before security forces at Reasi last evening along with an AK rifle, three magazines, two wireless sets, one mobile phone and 89 rounds.
Security forces seized two hand grenades and three detonators from a heap of garbage near Jamia Masjid at Shopian today.
UNI