Security forces destroy suspected IED found in J&K's Nowgam2Photo© timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Security forces destroy suspected IED found in J&K's Nowgam

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SRINAGAR: The bomb disposal squad defused an improvised explosive device planted near Nowgam railway station in Srinagar early Monday. Later in the day, the local train service — which had been temporarily suspended in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in March last year — resumed partially between Baramulla and Banihal after an 11-month gap.

“The suspected explosive was spotted on Pantha Chowk-Nowgam road stretch by a road-opening party and a police team, following which the bomb disposal squad was called to check the suspicious item, which turned out to be an IED fitted in a tin box,” IGP (Kashmir Range) Vijay Kumar said.

“As a precautionary measure, traffic was stopped on the stretch — barely a few hundred metres from Nowgam railway station near a bridge — and the IED defused, following which vehicle movement resumed normally,” the IGP said, adding the explosive may have been planted targeting security forces, especially convoys, at a time when Srinagar is on high alert with intense frisking and nakas of joint teams of police and CRPF in the wake of recent terror strikes in the city that left two cops dead in Barzulla and a dhaba scion injured in Dalgate.