Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has promised a 'strong reply' to the perpetrators of Thursday's deadly terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir's Pulwama district which left over 40 personnel dead and many injured.
Paying his tribute to the fallen men, the home minister said: "The attack was carried out by Pakistan backed Jaish e Mohammed. A strong reply will be given and I assure the people of the country this. The country pays tribute to the brave jawans who were martyred."
In the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted in 1989, a suicide bomber rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district, killing over 40 personnel.
The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for the horror and released a video clip of the suicide bomber, a 'commander' identified as Adil Ahmad Dar.
While precise details of the attack were still unclear, police sources said the suicide bomber-driven SUV came along the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bus when a 78-vehicle convoy carrying 2,547 security personnel was going from the transit camp in Jammu to Srinagar and rammed it into the bus around 3.15 p.m., triggering a deafening explosion.
So devastating was the attack that the CRPF bus was left in a mangled heap, many of its occupants losing their limbs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed it despicable and asserted that the sacrifices of security personnel will not go in vain.
(With agency inputs)
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