At least four people were injured in a blast after their vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir late on Sunday night, an official said on Monday.
The public transport vehicle was passing through Khilana area to drop passengers from Rawalpindi when the IED went off at about 9:30pm, according to deputy commissioner Jhelum Valley Abdul Hamid Kiani.
Located in Chakothi sector of Jhelum Valley district, Khilana area straddles the restive LoC and is vulnerable to a number of Indian army posts.
“While heading towards his last destination, the driver spotted rocks in the middle of the narrow road and as he tried to pass his vehicle from the edge of the road it hit and triggered an IED explosion,” Kiani told Dawn.
As a result, the driver and three passengers were injured, he added.
The injured persons were identified as driver Iram Abbas (a resident of Muzaffarabad), Mukhtiar Ahmed, Changaz Latif and Rehmat Hussain (residents of Khilana area).
They were shifted to a Muzaffarabad hospital and were said to be out of danger.
The DC said that since one of the Indian posts was located just across the site of the blast, the administration and army avoided search and sweep operation for fear of another blast, which did occur later at 10:30pm, a few yards away from the site of the first blast.
He recalled that some two months ago, a similar blast had left some three people wounded in that area.
Also around the same time, a local resident was blown up while trying to prepare an explosive device in the upper storey of his house, Kiani said.
