Planting of “fake” improvised explosive devices by some people allegedly in connivance with certain middle-rung Army officials is becoming a new way in militancy-ridden Jammu and Kashmir to earn hefty cash rewards.
Certain individuals, including ex-servicemen, allegedly in connivance with some officials of Northern and Western Commands are engaged in “planting black sand” and passing them on as RDX-laden IEDs to earn award money, highly-placed sources in the government said. The interrogation report of some of the accused, including Mehboob Dar and an ex-serviceman Ram Prasad, show a deep-rooted “nexus” between the ex-servicemen and some serving officials especially working in the military intelligence in allegedly hatching a conspiracy and planting “fake” IEDs, they said. The nexus emerged when the police recovered a consignment of apple boxes on October 8 near MLAs’ hostel in Jammu in which a cavity had been created to store a black material which was being passed off as explosive. The boxes had detonators attached to them, triggering panic.
After a forensic analysis, the explosive material turned out to be sand which was attached to wires, the sources said.