2019 Pulwama attack
On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles
carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide
bomber at Lethpora (near Awantipora) in the Pulwama
district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The attack resulted in the deaths of
40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and the attacker. The
responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The attacker was Adil Ahmad Dar, a local
from Indian-administered Kashmir, and a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed.India has
blamed Pakistan for the attack. Pakistan condemned the attack and denied any
connection to it.
Background
Kashmir is a disputed territory, claimed both
by India and Pakistan with both countries administering part of the territory.
Pakistan has sought to gain control of Indian-administered Kashmir. An
insurgency began to proliferate in Indian-administered Kashmir in the late
1980s. One of the causes of the insurgency was India's rigging of the 1987
elections, and Pakistan provided the insurgency with material support. Since 1989,
about 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the Indian crackdown.
According to Time, unrest in Kashmir grew in 2016 after India killed a popular
militant leader, Burhan
Wani.A rising number of young locals from Indian administered Kashmir have joined the militancy.ny sources state
that the majority of militants in Kashmir are now local, not foreign. In 2018
alone, the death toll included 260 militants, 160 civilians and 150 government
forces.
Since 2015, Pakistan-based militants in
Kashmir have increasingly taken to high-profile suicide attacks against the
Indian security forces. In July 2015, three gunmen attacked a bus, and police station in Gurdaspur. Early in 2016, four to six gunmen attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station In February and June 2016, the militants killed nine and eight security personnel
respectively in Pampore. In September 2016, four assailants attacked an Indian
Army brigade headquarters in Uri killing 19 soldiers. On 31 December 2017, the
Commando Training Centre at Lethpora was also attacked by militants killing
five security personnel. These attacks took place in the vicinity of the Jammu Srinagar National Highway.
Attack
On 14 February 2019, a convoy of 78 vehicles transporting more than 2,500 Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF) personnel from Jammu to Srinagar
was travelling on National Highway 44.
The convoy had left Jammu around 03:30 IST and was carrying a large number of personnel due to
the highway having been shut down for two days prior. The convoy was scheduled
to reach its destination before sunset.
At Lethpora
near Awantipora,
around 15:15 IST, a bus carrying security personnel was rammed by a car
carrying explosives. It caused a blast which killed 40 CRPF personnel of the
76th Battalion and injured many others. The injured were moved to the army base
hospital in Srinagar.
Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed
claimed responsibility for the attack. They also released a video of the
assailant Adil Ahmad Dar, a 22-year old from Kakapora
who had joined the group a year earlier. Dar's family had last seen him in
March 2018, when he left his house on a bicycle one day and never returned.
Pakistan denied any involvement, though Jaish-e-Mohammed's leader, Masood Azhar,
is known to operate in the country.
It is the deadliest terror attack on India's
state security personnel in Kashmir since 1989.
Source-:wikipedia
