2 held with detonators have no militant links: UT Police

As per the police sources in the UT Police,the two accused were sent on contract basis to Kotkhai,Himachal Pradesh and were working on a PWD project for roads and mining there.

The police custody for the accused,Mohammed Shafi,has been granted on the grounds that the police is questioning the accused. Also the accused may have to be taken to Doda in Jammu and Kashmir for investigation by the police.

The co-accused with Shafi who has been sent to a juvenile home had reportedly failed in his class XII examination last year and since then has been working as a labourer.

The preliminary investigations have revealed that the detonators recovered from the accused were acquired by the duo from the contractor. The police is also questioning the contractor.

The duo was arrested by the UT Police while checking the buses which were on the Jammu and Kashmir,Himachal Prasdesh and Punjab route. The two were arrested from Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT),Sector 43.

Another such case had hit the headlines on December 9,2008 when the CRPF and UT Police had arrested six persons,including a minor,and recovered 12 gelatine sticks and two gel sticks,six detonators,a seven-metre fuse wire and 18 steel ball bearings in their luggage besides other materials used to make bombs.

In this case,the arrests were made from the ISBT,Sector 17. All six were residents of Nepal.

The accused arrested in that case had disclosed that the they had stolen the explosives from a construction site near Shimla and were taking them to Uttarakhand. They had to use the explosives to blast rocks,according to the police.