Adviser to J-K Governor, DGP visit Pulwama terror attack site

Srinagar, February 15

Ahead of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit, K Vijay Kumar, the adviser to Jammu and Kashmir Governor, on Friday led a team of top police officials on a visit to Lethpora on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the site of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on security forces in the Valley that left 40 CRPF soldiers dead.

Kumar, who holds the charge of home portfolio in the governor’s administration, was accompanied by Director General of Police Dilbag Singh and Additional DGP Munir Ahmad Khan to the site of the terrorist attack.

The team visited the site to get a first-hand account of the incident as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Governor Satya Pal Malik are scheduled to arrive here later in the day to pay homage to the slain jawans, officials said.

Singh and Malik are also likely to co-chair a security review meeting here, they said.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General RR Bhatnagar and senior officials of the force are part of the team led by Rajnath. They are also expected to meet the injured who are admitted to the 92 base hospital of the Army in Srinagar.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed and five injured on Thursday when a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.

More than 2,500 CRPF personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir around 3.15 pm on Thursday.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack that took place about 20 km from Srinagar. PTI