Afghan-trained IED expert plotted Pulwama explosives?

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

A terrorist who learnt the method of carrying out big blasts during his stint in Afghanistan is suspected to have assembled the huge cache of explosives planted in a vehicle that hit a CRPF bus in Pulwama, killing its 40 personnel.

Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack, the worst ever on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said security forces were looking for Abdul Rasheed Ghani, alias Kamran, a close associate of JeM chief Masood Azhar. He is learnt to have been sent to India in December last and is stated to be a JeM expert on making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Adil Ahmed Dar, the driver of the explosive-laden vehicle that rammed the CRPF convoy, was a Class XI dropout and had been into terror operations for only 11 months. Sources said in such a short period, he could not have learnt enough to assemble around 200-kg explosives. Dar, a labourer, had joined the terror group led by Zakir Musa and was among the lower-rung ultras.

The fact that someone collected such huge quantity of explosives, rigged it with a trigger to explode it and placed it in a vehicle before launching points to the involvement of more people. Dar could not have pulled it off solely and his role in the operation is now suspected to be of only a driver.

Ghazi is hiding somewhere in southern Kashmir — Pulwama, Awantipora or Tral. Intelligence agencies had picked up inputs of his having entered India and he narrowly escaped in an encounter with the Army. Security agencies are still trying to find out who owned the vehicle used in the attack.

In the deadliest attack of the last 30 years of militancy in Kashmir, Dar, acting as suicide bomber, rammed his vehicle into the CRPF bus at 3.15 pm on Thursday, killing 40 jawans and injuring a dozen others along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Awantipora, Pulwama.