India / Car filled with 40-45 kg IED had fake number plate of BSF officer's bike: J&K Police

Jammu: The IED-laden car intercepted in Pulwama carried a fake number plate allotted to a motorbike registered in the name of a BSF officer, Sahil Kumar, at regional transport office in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir to mislead the forces, said officers.

DGP Dilbagh Singh, who shared the pictures of the Santro car carrying at least 30 kgs of explosives and its fake number plate with HT, said, “It was a false number plate used on the car to mislead the security forces.”

The DGP said the details of the real owner of the car shall be shared later.

Kathua district police chief, SSP Shailendra Kumar Mishra said, “The number plate used on the Santro car was of a motorbike belonging to Sahil Kumar, an ASI of the BSF posted in Budgam.”

“The motorbike was registered in his name here in Kathua,” he added.

Mishra informed that the BSF officer had nothing to do with the matter and it was a ploy of the terrorists to mislead the security forces.

The car with the fake registration number accelerated after the driver was signalled to stop. When the police opened fire, the driver first sped off, then abandoned the car and escaped.

The car was found later, a few kilometres away.

The security forces were acting on a tip-off about a vehicle laden with explosives on the move in the valley with the aim to target a security camp or vehicle.

On Febraury 14, 2019, in a similar modus operandi, a Jaish terrorist Aadil Dar had rammed his explosive laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy of 78 buses in Pulwama killing 40 CRPF men.

The commandant of CRPF’s 76 Battalion, NK Pandey and his men still remember the black day when they lost five of their colleagues, who were among the 40 CRPF men from various units travelling to Kashmir.

The convoy of 78 buses had left CRPF transit camp here in Jammu on the fateful day around 4 am and the bus that bore the brunt of suicide bombing belonged to the 76 Battalion.