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Explosives laden car found in Ambala, NSG team reaches
A
National Security Guard (NSG) team arrived from Delhi and Haryana
Police Thursday conducted raids around the Ambala Cantt railway
station after an explosives laden car was found in the parking lot
the
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New Delhi/Ambala: The
explosives found in a car in the parking lot of the Ambala
Cantonment railway station in Haryana were procured by the
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and were meant for the Babbar Khalsa
International (BKI) to set off bomb blasts in the capital, Delhi
Police said Thursday.
"Central intelligence agencies had informed us that a
Lashkar-e-Taiba module was active in Jammu and Kashmir...
Investigations revealed the explosives had been brought by LeT and
were meant for Babbar Khalsa International to carry out attacks in
Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arun Kampani
told reporters in New Delhi.
Unfolding the sequence of investigations that led police to seize
five kg of explosives from the car in Ambala, Kampani said they
got inputs from intelligence agencies ten days ago about
activities of the LeT module and that the BKI and LeT jointly
planned to carry out terror attacks.
Police sources said a terror outfit based in Nepal was giving
directions to the LeT module in the valley. The information was
"sketchy" and that the explosives were to be taken to a north
Indian city, the sources said.
Kampani said according to intelligence the car would probably be
driven by the LeT operatives who would hand over the explosives to
Babbar Khalsa members in Ambala.
Working on the inputs, the sleuths started looking for the exact
day and time of movement of the consignment. They got specific
information that a consignment of explosives had moved from Jammu
in vehicle No. HR-03R-0054 and would be exchanged at Ambala,
around 200 km from Delhi.
The information about car was shared with officials of Jammu and
Kashmir and Haryana Police. The search for the car began from
Wednesday morning in Ambala.
Joint teams of Delhi and the local police fanned out across the
town and highways. In the evening, a Tata Indica car with
suspected registration number was found in the parking lot of the
Ambala cantonment railway station.
"Surveillance was mounted on the vehicle for considerable time but
nobody turned up," said Kampani.
Police denied their presence may have inhibited the suspects from
coming near the vehicle, and said a close observation was
maintained by plainclothes men.
After waiting some time, police cordoned off the area and a bomb
disposal team of Haryana Police finally checked the car around
Wednesday midnight. It was then that the explosive materials --
hidden in the window cavity of the vehicle -- were discovered.
"Five kg of explosives, divided into three parts and wrapped in
brown adhesive tapes, five detonators and two timers in a plastic
box were hidden in the car," said Kampani.
Two toll tax receipts and some newspapers from Kashmir were also
recovered, besides a box of sweets, purchased from Jammu's Bari
Brahmana.
The police removed the tyres of the vehicle and some other parts
to check for presence of any more explosives, police sources said.
During investigation, police found the number plate on the car and
the registration certificate recovered were not the same. The car
was bearing a fake Haryana registration number and police suspect
that the vehicle was stolen.
However, police sources said that the number plate on the car is
registered in the name of a Panchkula-based business enterprise.
Efforts were on to trace the original owner of the car and police
and other security personnel were also trying to take accounts
from the eyewitnesses who may have seen the car driver.
According to preliminary investigations, the captured CCTV footage
showed the car had two occupants, the sources said.
Meanwhile, a forensic team from Haryana and the National Security
Guard team visited Ambala and gathered evidence, after which the
Delhi Police brought the car to the capital. The samples of
explosives have been sent for a forensic test.
The home ministry confirmed the incident but refused to divulge
more details. "Yes, explosives have been found," Home Secretary
R.K. Singh told reporters in Delhi.
In Ambala, a Haryana Police officer said their Delhi counterparts
were linking the discovery of the car to the blast at the high
court in the national capital last month.
"Delhi Police are linking this discovery with the high court blast
of last month. We are conducting raids and have launched an
extensive search operation in the area," he said.
As the vehicle was found in the cantonment area, police are also
probing if the target could have been a military installation in
the region.
An alert had been sounded in Haryana and neighbouring Punjab.
Security personnel had been asked to remain on alert and maintain
strict vigil and track any suspicious movement of people or
vehicles.
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