Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 26: Police today said it has thwarted a major terror plot by effecting a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosive devices from Bai Nullah, about one kilometers from Jammu-Pathankote National Highway under the jurisdiction of Ghagwal police station in Samba district even as reports said that recent flash floods, triggered by heavy rains, have caused damage to 700-800 meters of three-tier border fencing along the International Border (IB) in Jammu sector.
Official sources said a Village Defence Committee (VDC) member Suresh Kumar spotted the consignment of weaponry along Bai Nullah in early hours of this morning and immediately sounded police.
Police parties from Samba rushed to the spot and seized the consignment. Police also called a Bomb Disposal Squad to the spot and destroyed the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) on spot safely.
Recoveries included five Chinese pistols, six wireless sets (five of whom were in broken condition), four launcher shells, seven set antennas, three set dips, two loaded pistol magazines with 200 rounds, two IEDs and some accessories. The IEDs were in shape of tiffin and pipe bombs.
“The recoveries have derailed nefarious designs of militants and their supporters,” sources said.
IGP Jammu Rajesh Kumar, however, told the Excelsior that the consignment was an old one and appeared to have been washed away in the flood and reached Bai Nullah.
He said the consignment was not the fresh.
In the past few days, no infiltration attempt has been observed in Samba sector.
Sources said the militants might have dumped the consignment at an isolated area sometime back after their infiltration. However, they were unable to take it up later. The consignment was washed away in the recent floods and reached Bai Nullah.
Ghagwal police station has registered FIR No. 74/2013 under Sections 7/25 Arms Act, 3/4 and 4/5 Explosives Act for further investigations in the recoveries.
Sources said it was an alert VDC member, Suresh Kumar, attached as SPO with the VDC, who spotted the consignment and helped police recover it. It may be mentioned here that some anti-national elements at the behest of militant outfits and their masters have launched a defamatory campaign against the VDCs.
Meanwhile, due to flash floods, 700-800 meters of border fencing in the riverine belts in different areas of International Border (IB) in Jammu sector has suffered damages, sources said.
The patches of 200-300 meters of border fencing have suffered damages in Kathua, Samba and Jammu sectors due to flash floods during last fortnight, they said.
At some places, the border fencing has been fully washed away by the flash floods in the riverine areas of Basantar belt.
Nearly 190 kilometers of border along IB in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts from Moluchak (Akhnoor LoC) in Jammu district to Pathankote in Jammu frontier is fenced and flood lighted to stop cross-border infiltration and smuggling of narcotics and weapons into the state from Pakistan.
The BSF will undertake repair and re-construction of border fencing soon after the threat of flash floods comes down, sources said.
The troops guarding the borderline are keeping a close watch on the three-tier border fencing areas in view of the threat of infiltration from across the border.
Last year, BSF troops had repaired and re-constructed over 500 meters of long fencing patches along Indo-Pak border in Samba district which were damaged by the torrential rains and flash floods.
Parts of three-tier border fencing along IB was washed away in Nursery-Bandtop forward area of Ramgarh sub-sector of Samba district due to flash floods in Basantar river.
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