Police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested three militant associates belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) along with Improvised Explosive Device (IED) material in south Kashmir district of Pulwama.

The recovery comes a day after several vehicles were damaged when militants detonated an IED in south Kashmir district of Anantnag.  

A police spokesperson said that following specific information about movement of militants, police, 42 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and 180 battalion of CRPF launched a joint operation at villages Batagund and Dadsara in Tral area of Pulwama. “During the operation security forces arrested three militant associates, identified as Shafat Ahmad Sofi, Majid Mohammad Bhat and Umer Rashid Wani ,” he said. 

He said as per police records, they were involved in providing shelter, logistics and transportation of arms/ammunition to the active HM militants in Tral and Awantipora area.

He said on their disclosure, incriminating materials, including eight electric detonator, seven anti-mechanism switches, three pressure/relay mechanism switches, one improvised switch and one anti-mine wireless antenna were recovered from the residential house of one of the arrested militant associates in village Dadsara.

“All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation,” he said, adding a case under relevant sections of the law has been registered and further investigation has been taken up.

On Sunday, police averted a major tragedy by recovering an IED weighing 6.5-kg near general bus stand in Jammu.

Police on Sunday also claimed to have arrested two chief commanders of two separate militant outfits including The Resistance Front (TRF) and Lashkar-e-Mustafa in the past few days across the UT.