5 years of Pulwama attack: PM Modi pays homage to martyrs, says ‘sacrifice will always be remembered’

In the single worst terror attack in the Valley, a suicide bomber rammed his Scorpio SUV laden with explosives into a CRPF bus in south Kashmir, on 14 February, 2019, leaving 40 personnel dead. The Jaish-e-Mohammad had claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as a 20-year-old local resident of Pulwama. In March that year, police officials announced that Mudasir Ahmed Khan, alias ‘Mohd Bhai’, a JeM operative, who was the “main conspirator” behind the attack, was killed in an encounter.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also paid homage to the martyrs. “I bow to the valorous martyrs of Pulwama, who laid down their lives for our motherland. Their supreme sacrifice will always be remembered. Nation will forever remain indebted to our bravehearts,” he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared an image on X from his visit to the site of the Pulwama attack during the Kashmir leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in January 2023. “Hundreds of salutes and humble tribute to the brave martyrs of Pulwama terrorist attack. The country will always be indebted to them for their supreme sacrifice dedicated to the defense of India,” Gandhi wrote.

पुलवामा आतंकी हमले के वीर शहीदों को शत शत नमन और विनम्र श्रद्धांजलि।

भारत की रक्षा को समर्पित उनके इस सर्वोच्च बलिदान के लिए, देश सदा ऋणी रहेगा। pic.twitter.com/q9XylQ2mk7

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 14, 2024

What happened on February 14, 2019 in Pulwama?

A bus, ferrying over 40 soldiers, was moving from Jammu to Srinagar. It was part of a convoy of 78 vehicles with 2,547 CRPF personnel. It was about 35 km from Srinagar city when, at around 3.30 pm, the SUV is suspected to have emerged from a side road to hit the bus at a right angle.

JeM identified the suicide bomber inside the SUV as Adil Ahmad Dar, a resident of Gundibagh village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama, who had joined the outfit in March 2018.

CRPF probe flagged intel failure

As The Indian Express had earlier reported, the CRPF conducted an internal inquiry into lapses that led to the attack, which flagged intelligence failure and excessive length of the convoy as the major reasons for the attack.

Sources told this paper that though there had been inputs on IED attacks, nothing was shared about the convoy, specifically. They added that 78 vehicles made the convoy too long, making “information about movement of the convoy prone to leak” as well as “visible and accessible”.