Srinagar: Twenty jawans were killed and 40 injured when a suicide bomber rammed a Scorpio car laden with 350 kg of explosives into a CRPF convoy in Awantipora town of Pulwama district on Thursday. This is one of the worst attacks since the 2001 Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly car bombing.
Sources said Adil Ahmad Alias Waqar, a resident of Pulwama, was the man driving the car that rammed the 55-seater CRPF bus. Such a car bomb suicide attack is happening after several years.
The Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
As per initial reports, soon after the attack on the convoy, which was moving from Jammu to Srinagar, gunshots and grenade blasts were heard.
IG Police Kashmir Range SP Pani told News18 that the toll was feared to rise.
Former Army Chief and current MoS external affairs Gen VK Singh said that “every drop of our soldiers’ blood will be avenged”.
NC leader Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti condemned the attack.
Last year on Oct 30 security forces gunned down Mohammad Usman, believed to have been the head of the module that was carrying out sniper attacks on forces in the Valley. Usman was the nephew of Moulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad. Security forces had claimed it to be one of the biggest successes in anti-terror operations.
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