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News

Army defuses IED on Jammu-Poonch NH


Date:- 28 May 2019


A major tragedy was averted on the Jammu-Poonch national highway near Kallar Chowk, 12 km short of Rajouri town, when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detected on the roadside. The Army later defused it. The IED was detected in morning when a road opening party of a Territorial Army battalion under an artillery brigade was sanitising the area before allowing a convoy of security forces to proceed on the highway.

The IED was first detected by a sniffer dog of the Army, which was later confirmed by the mine detector. “Once the Army was sure that it was an IED, the engineering wing was called in for defusing it,” an Army official said.

“The IED was defused and nobody was harmed. The explosives in the IED were low-key,” the official said.

Immediately after detecting the IED, the traffic on the highway was suspended and no one was allowed to come close to the area. “The entire area was sanitised before allowing the traffic to pass,” said a police officer.

Sources in the Army told The Tribune that this could be the handiwork of overground workers of the militant organisations, who try to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the area. “The area is not far from the Line of Control and in the past too, militants after infiltrating into the Indian side used to take this route to head towards the Kashmir valley,” said a source.

“This is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with strongly as this could be the beginning of the revival of militant activities in the border district of Rajouri,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Rajouri SSP Yougal Manhas said: “Soldiers detected something suspicious lying alongside the highway. After a close examination, they found a bottle filled with liquid material and a polybag carrying some solid substance.”

“After an hourlong exercise by the Army, the suspected IED was destroyed on the spot,” the SSP said in his earlier statement. Govind Rattan, Deputy SP Headquarters, has been directed to conduct an investigation into the incident, Manhas added.

Courtesy,The Tribune,May 28,2019