Gautam Gambhir condemned the attack in Pulawama on Thursday
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir, who likes to play with a straight bat even off the field, has condemned the gruesome terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Thursday, which left over 40 personnel dead and many injured.
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.
"Yes, let’s talk with the separatists. Yes, let’s talk with Pakistan. But this time conversation can’t be on the table, it has to be in a battle ground. Enough is enough. 18 CRPF personnel killed in IED blast on Srinagar-Jammu highway," Gambhir tweeted.
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.
Former India cricketers Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman too have condoled the death of the CRPF personnel.
"Really pained by the cowardly attack on our CRPF in J&K in which our brave men have been martyred. No words are enough to describe the pain. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured," Sehwag tweeted.
"Sad and pained to hear about the dastardly attack on our brave CRPF men in #Pulwama in which many of our jawans have been martyred. I pray for a quick and speedy recovery of those injured in the attack," Laxman wrote in a tweet.
