CRPF personnel recovered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) an hour before the scheduled visit of Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to Bhaderwah town of Doda district on Friday, officials said.
During the sanitisation operation for the visit, CRPF troops recovered an IED at Daligarh, 3 km from Bhaderwah town, an hour before the arrival of Gandhi and Patil there to assess the ground situation following heavy snowfall and avalanches in the beginning of this month, they said.
The IED was hidden in the snow and fitted with a detonator to trigger the blast, officials said, adding that a possible explosion would not have directly affected the VIPs but could have caused panic during the visit.
The IED was later defused., they said noting that top authorities visited the spot and gave instructions for tighter vigilance.
Meanwhile, Sonia and Patil began their day-long visit to the snow-hit areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Anantnag, Kulgam and Srinagar districts of Jammu and Kashmir. She was received by Union Minister for Water Resources and JKPCC chief Saifuddin Soz, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Peoples Democratic Party President chief Mehbooba Mufti.