Toll in Pulwama attack rises to 41; Court of Inquiry ordered

The toll in the terror attack on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district has risen to 41 even as a full Court of Inquiry has been ordered by the force headquarters in Delhi, a senior official said Friday.

List of CRPF jawans who were travelling in the ill-fated bus

A Jaish suicide bomber Thursday rammed a vehicle carrying about 100-kg of explosives into a bus carrying CRPF personnel in Pulwama district.

“A total of 41 personnel have been killed in Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir. Five troops are injured,” the senior official said.

While 38 personnel have been identified, DNA and forensic tests are being conducted on three bodies, he said.

Among the killed is a personnel of the CRPF road opening party who was tasked to sanitise the highway route for convoy movement, the official said.

In the wake of the incident, the CRPF has issued a ‘high vigil’ alert to all its formations in the Kashmir Valley and other places in the state and has asked its units to be in “full preparedness”.

A Court of Inquiry has been ordered into the incident, the official said.

The force also posted a message on its official Twitter handle saying: “We will not forget, we will not forgive.”

“We salute our martyrs of Pulwama attack and stand with the families of our martyr brothers. This heinous attack will be avenged,” the social media post said.

CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar and senior officials of the force have left for Kashmir as part of a team led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to assess the situation.

They are also expected to meet the injured who are admitted to the 92 base hospital of the army in Srinagar, they said.

More than 2,500 CRPF personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir around 3.15 pm on Thursday.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack that took place about 20 km from Srinagar, officials had said.

Police identified the suicide bomber as Adil Ahmed, who officials said joined the Jaish in 2018.

He was driving a vehicle packed with over 100 kg of explosives on the wrong side of the road and hit the bus, in which an estimated 39-44 personnel were travelling, head-on, an official at the spot had said.

The powerful explosion, which reduced the bus to a mangled heap of iron, was heard many kilometres away, including in some parts of Srinagar adjoining Pulwama district. It is estimated that about 70-80 kgs of high grade explosive was used in the blast.