Death toll in Pulwama Fidayeen attack touches 30

The death toll  of CRPF personnel killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday , after an SUV laden with explosives rammed into a CRPF convoy vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu highway has reached to 30.However,according to sources the  casualities are likely to go up. Over 20 people were injured in the attack, which reduced the bus to a mangled heap of iron. Several other buses were damaged in the attack.Body parts could be seen strewn around the area.

The terror attack took place when a total of 2,547 CRPF personnel were coming in a convoy of 78 vehicles from the transit camp in Jammu and headed to Srinagar.

Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant group has claimed responsibly for the fidayeen attack. In a statement to a local news agency , a caller claiming to be a spokesman of JeM said it was a ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attack.

Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Adil Ahmad Dar, who belonged to Kakapora in Pulwama, was identified as the suicide bomber.

Officials said the reason why so many CRPF personnel were on the move at one time was because the Srinagar-Jammu highway had been shut the past two days due to bad weather.

There were 50 vehicles in the convoy including 20 busses plus other trucks and SUVs. Each bus/truck had 35 to 40 constables. The suicide was mounted to beat the guards along the route. The SUV, which was used by the suicide bomber, was laden with explosives. It rammed the targeted bus. The blast took place on Srinagar-Jammu national Highway. The traffic on this highway was resumed on 13 Feb after 7 days of closure due to heavy snowfall.