Mendhar/Jammu | Three ready-to-use improvised explosive devices (IED), each weighing between three to 20 kgs, were recovered from a terrorist hideout in the border district of Poonch on Wednesday, officials said.

They termed it a "major breakthrough" ahead of Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The IEDs, planted inside steel containers of five-kg, 10-kg and 20-kg capacity, were found hidden inside a cave hideout during a joint search operation by the police, CRPF and Rashtriya Rifles in the forest area of Sanai-Gursai in the Mendhar sub-division, the officials said.

They said the bomb disposal squad later destroyed all the three IEDs in a controlled explosion, scuttling terrorists' plan to carry out blasts in the Union Territory.

“We received an input about the likely hideout and suspicious movement in the upper Sanai at 4 am and subsequently launched a joint 'search and destroy' operation with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Rashtriya Rifles.

"Three IEDs, one weighing 15 to 20 kgs, second eight to 10 kgs and third three to five kgs, having two mechanisms for initiating charge were recovered and destroyed,” CRPF officer Rajnesh Yadav said.

Yadav, who is second-in-command of the 246th battalion, said the seizure of the IEDs foiled terrorists' plan to carry out an attack.

“This is an election time and terrorists are always on the lookout to disrupt elections by carrying out any sensational act,” he told reporters at the scene.

The officials said no one was arrested during the operation which concluded with the safe disposal of the seized IEDs.