A forensic team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Pulwama where a car fitted with an IED with an estimated 40-45 kg of RDX was blasted in situ by the bomb disposal squad early on Thursday.

A Pulwama-like terror plot is being touted to have been averted by destroying the explosives-laden vehicle and the forensic team lifted various samples from the incident site for scientific testing and analysis into the type of explosives and detonators fitted into the IED, sources said.

While the case has not been handed over the NIA officially, the investigation is likely to be taken over by the federal anti-terror probe agency soon, they said. 

According to preliminary information gathered by the agencies, the car was driven by a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist who escaped after initial firefight with the security forces. The Santro car had a fake number plate and the registration number was that of a two wheeler registered at Kathua of Jammu zone. 

Initial inputs suggest a Pakistan-based terrorist of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, Walid, who is an expert in fabricating IEDs, could have been involved in developing the bomb for detonation by the occupants of the now destructed car.

The pattern is similar to Pulwama-I in which Pak terrorist groups JeM and LeT had planned and helped in fabrication of the IED which was blasted by a local boy who acted as a fidayeen and rammed the Maruti Eeco car packed with explosives on a convoy of the CRPF in February last year killing 40 paramilitary men and injuring several others.