Deadliest attack in Awantipora kills 40 CRPF personnel

#JeM releases video of bomber; Explosion heard 10 km away; NSG, NIA teams to join investigation

15/02/2019

Pulwama, Feb 14: In the deadliest terror attack on security forces in Kashmir, around 40 CRPF personnel were killed on Thursday when their convoy was targeted in Pulwama district on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
The convoy comprised 78 buses in which around 2500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar.
K Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Governor, said that the death toll in the attack was around 40.
The convoy was targeted in Ladoora area on the new Expressway, CRPF Director General R P Bhatnagar said.
A bus, in which 42 CRPF personnel were travelling, was extensively damaged in the blast which was followed by firing on the vehicle. The cause of the blast is being ascertained, Bhatnagar added.
"We suffered damage to the vehicle and men," said a senior CRPF official here.
The injured have been shifted to a hospital, he added but refused to give the casualty figure.
Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) S P Pani told reporters that it was a terror incident and an investigation is being conducted to ascertain the nature of the explosion.
This is the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir.
Earlier in September 2016, an Army camp was stormed by terrorists in Uri, killing 19 soldiers.
Prior to that 28 BSF personnel were killed in an attack on a convoy of the paramilitary force in 2004.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was caused by a suicide bomber, according to a local news agency.
Experts of the anti-terror commando force National Security Guard (NSG) and investigators of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are being sent to Jammu and Kashmir to join the probe into the terror attack in Pulwama in which at least 39 CRPF personnel were killed, officials said Thursday.
The decision was taken in view of the high number of casualties in the worst terror strike in the state since the Uri attack in 2016. An NIA team with forensic experts is being sent to Srinagar to assist Jammu and Kashmir Police in forensic evaluation of the scene of crime, a home ministry official said.
Explosive specialists of the Black Cat commando force NSG will also join in the investigation into the attack, another official said.
The scene of devastation and destruction caused on Thursday by the suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 39 security personnel sent chills down the spine of unsuspecting locals who witnessed the blood bath in Pulwama district's Awantipora area, about 20 km from here.
The explosive used in the attack was so strong that the blast was heard from 10-12 km away, including some parts of Srinagar adjoining the Pulwama district, locals said.
Body parts of the terrorist, identified as Adil Ahmad, and the CRPF personnel killed in the attack were strewn on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway, where the incident happened. Some of the bodies were so badly blown up that officials feel it may take some time to identity them.
This was the first suicide car bomb strike in Kashmir since the 2001 attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that left 41 persons, including three suicide attackers, dead.
More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when the suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a bus carrying 39-44 jawans, officials said.
There was nothing at the scene of the incident to suggest which type of vehicle was used to carry out the attack except the mangled heap of iron of the bus that was the target.
As soon as the explosion took place, people started running for safety. The shopkeepers at Lethpora market, which is less than 300 metres from the scene of the attack, downed their shutters and fled.
The scene of the incident is not very far from the Commando Training Centre at Lethpora, which was stormed by Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists on December 31, 2017, killing five CRPF personnel.
List of the jawans travelling in the bus are Jaimal Singh, Naseer Ahamad, Sukhvinder Singh, Rohitash Lamba, Tilak Raj, Bhagirath Singh, Birendra Singh, Avdesh Kumar Yadav, Nitin Singh Rathor, Rattan Kumar Thakur, Surendra Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Ramvakil, Dharamchandra, Belkar Thaka, Shyam Babu, Ajit Kumar Azad, Pardeep Singh, Sanjay Rajpoot, Kaushal Kumar Rawat, Jeet Ram, Amit Kumar, Bijay Kumar Morya, Kulwinder Singh, Vijay Soreng, Vashanta Kumar VV, Guru H, Subham Anirang G, Amar Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Maninder Singh, Ramesh Yadav, Parshana Kumar Shau, Hem Raj Meena, Babla Shantra, Ashwani Kumar Kochi, Pardeep Kumar, Sudhir Kumar Banshal, Ravinder Singh, M Bashumatary, Mahesh Kumar.

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