Arrested J&K suspect planned suicide attack on CRPF convoy: Police

Jammu, April 1 (IANS) The suspect arrested after the car explosion on Jammu-Srinagar highway on Saturday was planning to carry out a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said on Monday.

Addressing a media conference here, Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said the suspect had escaped from the site on Saturday but was traced and arrested on Monday.

The arrested youth, identified as Owais Amin of Shopian district in the Kashmir Valley and a member of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen group, was also produced before the media.

"We recovered 50 gelatin sticks of super power 90 brand, urea, sulphur, ammonium nitrate, two bottles of petrol, and two LPG cylinders. These high grade explosive materials were recovered spread around the burning car.

"We had immediately started an operation to trace the driver of the car who had somehow managed to escape and we were successful in arresting him today (Monday)," the DGP said.

Amin said he had been assigned the job of carrying out a suicide attack against the CRPF convoy passing on the highway on March 30 and was told that he would receive his instructions on phone. "I was only told to press the button after coming close to the CRPF vehicle," he said.

The police said they had clearly established that militants had made plans to carry out a massive suicide attack which got aborted because the car carrying the high grade explosive caught fire before the driver could trigger the bigger improvised explosive device (IED).

The DGP said the blast occurred because a small IED inside the car went off before the driver could trigger the high-grade IED with which he had planned to carry out the suicide attack.