The car, a white Santro, fitted with at least 40 kilograms of explosives which was spotted and desfused in a village near Rajpora in Pulwama on Thursday, was owned by an active Hizb-ul Mujahideen militant.
A police official said The vehicle belonged to Hidayatullah Malik, an active Hizb-ul Mujahideen militant, from Shopian’s Sharatpora and they said that Malik had joined the militant ranks in July last year.
The car was stopped at two checkpoints in Pulwama, but the militant managed to escape from the spot. The car was not registered in the Kashmir valley, but in the Jammu division of the J&K union territory, the police said.
Following the recovery of the car, the bomb disposal squad destroyed the explosives fitted in the car. The car had a fake number plate and the forces found a huge quantity of IED fitted in a drum inside the car.
The police are investigating the nature of the explosives and the likely target.
