On First Pulwama Attack Anniversary, Memorial Inaugurated, Jawans Remembered Across Country

Peerzada Ashiq

A memorial was inaugurated and floral tributes were paid on Friday to 40 CRPF jawans who lost their lives in a car bomb suicide attack a year ago in Pulwama’s Lethpora area.

Senior officials of all the wings of the security forces — including the Army, the J&K police and the CRPF — laid wreaths at the memorial to pay tributes to the deceased jawans. The names of all the jawans, their ranks and battalions were displayed on the occasion.

Umesh Gopinath Jadhav from Maharashtra was the special guest at the wreath-laying ceremony. He had travelled around 61,000 km to meet the families of all 40 deceased jawans.

Speaking on the occasion, a senior CRPF officer said, “All the conspirators, the top leadership (of the militant outfit) and the (militant) supporters were taken care of immediately after the attack in concerted operations.”

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is investigating the attack. “The NIA has made huge progress in the case,” the CRPF officer added.

The Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit took responsibility for the Pulwama attack, in which a local suicide bomber, Adil Dar from Pulwama, detonated an explosives-laden car near a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. India launched air strikes inside Pakistan in response to the attack and hit several militants camps later in February last year.(The Hindu)