Police has arrested four more youth from twin south Kashmir districts for their alleged involvement in Banihal car blast case while the investigation into the case is in the final stage, a senior Police officer said Friday.
With the arrest of four youth, the total number of the arrested ones in the case has reached six.
The four arrested youth were identified as Waseem Ahmad of Chakoora of Pulwama, Umar Shafi and Aqib Shafi of Behil, Shopian and Shahid Wani of Kanhama, Shopian.
“They were lodged in judicial custody,” a Police officer said.
On March 30, a windshield of a CRPF bus was damaged in a car blast on the Sriangar-Jammu highway near Banihal.
Police also claimed to have recovered an LPG cylinder, a jerry can filled with petrol, gelatin stick, urea and sulphur that is used for fabricating the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).
Police had said that the suspect jumped out the car when it caught fire.
However, there was no loss of life in the blast.
Next day, Police arrested one alleged Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant Owais Amin of Shopian for an abortive attempt to target a CRPF convoy.
On April 23, Police arrested a student Hilal Ahmad Mantoo of Chakura village in Pulwama in connection with the case.
Mantoo, who is studying at the Central University of Punjab, was arrested from the varsity campus by Bathinda Police.
A Police officer said Mantoo was arrested after J&K Police issued an arrest warrant against him.
He was put to intense questioning soon after he was brought to the State, the officer said.
“During his questioning, he revealed involvement of four other south Kashmir youth, who were subsequently arrested from their residences,” he said.
The officer said some of the accused were involved in “conducting reconnaissance” while some provided “motivational support” to the main accused, Owais and paid for his hotel stay.
Police in Banihal had registered an FIR 39 under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 120 (concealing design to commit offence), 120-A (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war or attempting to wage war against the government), 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences u/s 121), and under sections of the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
However, later the NIA registered a case and took over the investigation.
“Most of the investigation into the case is complete. We are working at a few more links,” Senior Superintendent of Police Ramban, Anita Sharma said.
She said the findings of the investigations would be shared with the NIA shortly.
