45 CRPF men killed in the deadliest militant attack in J&K

SRINAGAR — In the deadliest attack in Jammu and Kashmir, forty-five paramilitary CRPF personnel have been killed in a car bombing in Lethpora area along the Srinagar-Jammu highway in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday afternoon.

An official of the CRPF said that a “suicide car bomber” rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the bus near Lethpora at around 03:15 PM, resulting into an intensive blast in which 45 paramilitary personnel have been killed. The injured personnel were initially admitted in Army’s 92 base hospital at Badamibagh, Srinagar.

“A total of 45 CRPF men belonging to different battalions were travelling in the vehicle when the blast occurred,” the CRPF official said.

He said that the CRPF men belonged to 92, 17 and 54 battalions. JeM militant outfit identified the bomber as Adil Ahmad Dar alias Waqas Commando.

JeM also released a video of the bomber on social media which has already gone viral.

Following the blast, the traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway came to standstill and when the report last came in, the road was still closed. Soon after the blast, government forces launched searches in the entire area.

A police officer said forensic experts have taken samples even as investigations have been set into motion. The officer also confirmed that today’s attack was the deadliest.

“Even though there were major attacks in the past also like Badamibagh and Assembly but this is the first attack in which there have been such a huge number of causalities,” the officer said.

Regarding the vehicle, the officer said that it seems to be a scorpio or jeep. “Investigations are underway in this regard,” the officer said.

IGP Kashmir, SP Pani said that it was a gruesome terror attack. “The investigations have been taken up. We have started gathering the sequences how this happened and the people behind it will be brought before the law,” the IGP said, adding, “We are ascertaining chain of circumstances in this incident.” (GNS)