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| Suspected assassination bid on Sonia foiled | | | Early Times Reporter
Bhaderwah | Feb 22
The CRPF late last night busted a suspected militant hideout near Bhaderwah Doda district of Jammu, which falls just 800 metres away from the location where UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would be meeting the avalanche affected people along with Home Minister Shivraj Patil today.
The security forces unearthed the bid, in what looks like an assassination plot on the Congress chief.
The CRPF personnel also recovered an improvised explosive device (IED) an hour before the scheduled visit of UPA chairperson to Bhaderwah town of Doda district. The IED was hidden in the snow and fitted with a detonator to trigger the blast, sources said. During the sanitisation operation for the visit, CRPF troops recovered an IED at Daligarh, three kms from Bhaderwah town, an hour before arrival of Gandhi and Patil there to assess the ground situation.
The CRPF recovered 4 kg RDX, 2 grenades and many detonators from the hideout near Tel Mata Mandir in Kannauj.
According to defence sources, five militants, suspected to be a part of hardcore Islamic group Lashkar-e-Toiba, managed to flee before the security forces reached the spot.
Two members of the house have been taken into custody for questioning into the matter.
Sonia is on a whirlwind tour of the areas in Jammu and Kashmir where nearly 30 people, including several army men, lost their lives to avalanches triggered by continuous heavy snowfall early this month.
The Congress president with the Home Minister has arrived in Jammu. The team would then fly to Udhampur air force base where she would be received by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and several ministers in Azad's cabinet, senior officials said today.
The Congress team is scheduled to tour Azad's hometown and assembly constituency Bhaderwah and also meet the affected people there.
She would then make an aerial survey of worst hit Kapran, Verinag and Dooru areas of Anantnag district in south Kashmir.
The security has been beefed up, while search operations are being carried out.
The Intelligence inputs have suggested that the militant groups were to target Sonia Gandhi at vulnerable locations.
Sonia Gandhi's security cordon has three layer of Special Protection Group cover for the rally to be held at Jammu.
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