JAMMU: A suspected militant, who had driven a car used in Saturday’s failed car bombing on CRPF convoy at Banihal on Sringar-Jammu national highway, was arrested by police on Monday and is being quizzed.
Police and intelligence agencies had launched a massive manhunt to track down the driver of 2011-make Santro, who had fled from the spot after Saturday’s failed car bombing. The Santro was gutted in the blast.
A CRPF vehicle had suffered minor damage but there were no injuries in the failed car bombing, which came 45 days after February 14 suicide bombing on CRPF bus at Lethpora, Pulwama, in which 40 paramilitary personnel were killed.
Sources said the police and security officials were interrogating the driver to know details about the people and the brain behind the failed car bombing.
“He is being questioned who had prepared the car bomb and where the fabrication of vehicle had taken place,” they said.
Sources said the arrested driver was giving contradictory statements to his interrogators. According to the police, the driver had jumped from the vehicle before the blast and gone into hiding to evade arrest.
A two-page purported Urdu suicide note of Hizbul Mujahideen was recovered from the blast site in which the driver of the vehicle was identified as Owais Amin, who was supposed to carry out suicide bombing like Jaish militant Adil Ahmad Dar of Pulwama did on February 14 at Lethpora, Pulwama.
The security forces recovered explosives, gelatin sticks, urea and sulphur and an intact LGP gas cylinder from the blast site.
The NSG is probing how much explosives was used in the failed car bomb attack on CRPF convoy.
The NIA is also assisting the police and security agencies in ascertaining nature of the explosives used in the failed bombing.