The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Friday paid tributes to their personnel who lost their lives in the Pulwama attack on this day, last year when their convoy was targeted by a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
Umesh Gopinath Jadhav from Maharashtra was the special guest at the wreath-laying ceremony at CRPF campus here to mark a year of the attack.
Jadhav took a 61,000 km long journey across India to meet families of the 40 jawans who lost their lives in the attack.
Jadhav met the families of the Pulwama martyrs and said that he collected the soil from their houses.
"I am proud that I met all the families of Pulwama martyrs, and sought their blessings. Parents have lost their sons, wives lost their husbands, children lost their fathers, friends lost their friends. I collected soil from their houses and their cremation grounds," Jadhav said.
Later, the soil collected by Jadhav was placed at the memorial at CRPF's Lethpora camp.
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It was around 3:00 pm on this day last year, when a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist rammed a vehicle carrying explosives into the Central Reserve Police Force (CPRF) convoy on Srinagar-Jammu national highway.
Around 40 CRPF personnel were killed when their convoy was targeted by the suicide bomber of Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pulwama district.
Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after the convoy of 78 buses, in which around 2,500 CRPF personnel were traveling from Jammu to Srinagar, came under attack.
Days after the attack, the Indian Air Force on February 26 carried out multiple aerial strikes at JeM terror camps in Pakistan's Balakot, killing a "large number" of terrorists and destroying their infrastructure.