According to intelligence reports, the improvised explosive device (IED) detonated on June 17 at Arihal village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district was prepared and blown up by Jaish-e-Mohammad’s IED expert, 19-year-old Munna Lahori, a senior intelligence officer has revealed.
The security forces are in the lookout for Lahori, who is said to be operating and hiding in the Pulwama-Shopian belt.
On June 17, the terrorist had carried out the attack at the mobile vehicle patrol of 44 RR with a vehicle-based IED. Nine jawans and two civilians were injured in the attack. Later two jawans had succumbed to their injuries. The place where the attack took place was just 27 km away from the area where the CRPF convoy was attacked by a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber on February 14 killing 44 CRPF Jawans in one of the worst terror attacks in the Valley.
According to intelligence agencies, Lahori who is “an expert in making EDs fitted in vehicles” is said to have infiltrated in Kashmir last year with a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Sources believe that Lahori along with his accomplices have set up their operational base in Pulwama-Shopian belt where they are conditioning the Kashmiri youth and training them in making IED’s with local materials.
Sources also indicated that Lahori is planning more such attacks. “There is a shift in modus operandi of terrorists in South Kashmir. They can use IEDs without putting their own lives in danger”, said a senior intelligence officer.
Meanwhile, in view of the IED threat, security forces have increased the number of bomb detection squads in the Valley. 117 militants (including 89 locals) have been killed in anti-militancy operations here.