Srinagar, May 23: Traffic along Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was restored after being suspended for five hours today following an IED blast that killed 30 persons including 28 BSF personnel and their family members and created a two-metre deep crater on the road, official sources said. Traffic was restored late in the afternoon as border roads organisation carried out repair works and an emergency sanitisation of the highway, the sources said. Vehicular movement was suspended as the blast had created a two-metre deep crater along the 300-km long highway, the only road link between Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country, they said.
Earlier in the day, police recovered a 20 kg IED from Sanga Area along the National Highway, the sources said, adding the explosive, which was detected at 8.35 am, was defused. They said security forces intensified the patrolling on the highway, searching for more explosives possibly planted by the militants.
Many vehicles were seen stranded along the highway as the tourist influx into the valley had started picking up in view of intense heat wave in the rest of the country, the sources said.

Bureau Report