Pulwama attack anniversary: India pays tribute to CRPF personnel martyred in Kashmir

February 14 this year marks the anniversary of the deadly 2019 Pulwama terror attack. India is paying its tribute to the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel killed in the Pulwama terror attack in February last year. A memorial to the fallen soldiers has been inaugurated at the Lethpora camp in Jammu & Kashmir's Srinagar on Friday.

Jammu and Kashmir: Tributes being paid to the 40 CRPF jawans who lost their lives in #PulwamaAttack last year, at the memorial at CRPF's Lethpora camp, in Srinagar. pic.twitter.com/9aAxF5cbhE

— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2020

To mark the one-year anniversary of the tragic Pulwama Attack, a special guest is present at the wreath-laying ceremony at the CRPF campus in Kashmir's Lethpora.

The special guest is Umesh Gopinath Jadhav from Maharashtra, who took a 61,000 km long journey across India, solely to meet the families of the 40 jawans who had lost their lives in the attack.

After meeting the families of the Pulwama martyrs, a proud Jadhav said that he was blessed to have met them. "Parents lost their son, wives lost their husbands, children lost their fathers, friends lost their friends," he said, adding, "I collected soil from their houses and their cremation grounds."

Umesh Gopinath Jadhav: I'm proud that I met all the families of Pulwama martyrs, and sought their blessings. Parents lost their son, wives lost their husbands, children lost their fathers, friends lost their friends. I collected soil from their houses & their cremation grounds." https://t.co/b7A0ubGuyu pic.twitter.com/1DR0fLWxtc

— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2020

The soil was then placed at the memorial at CRPF's Lethpora camp.

The names of all the 40 personnel along with their pictures is a part of the memorial along with the motto of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) -- 'Seva and Nishtha' (Service and Loyalty).

"Conspirators of the 2019 Pulwama attack were neutralized a few months after the incident. Some people who helped them have been arrested. Every single person who was behind this attack has been accounted for," Additional Director General of CRPF Zulfiqar Hasan said on Friday after a visit to the site where the memorial has been erected.

"Investigation is being done by the National Investigation Agency. It is proceeding in the right direction. As far as I know, they have made huge progress. We've tried our best to take care of martyrs' families," he added.

Zulfiquar Hasan, Special CRPF DG J&K Zone, in Pulwama: Investigation is being done by the National Investigation Agency. It is proceeding in the right direction. As far as I know, they have made huge progress. We've tried our best to take care of martyrs' families. #PulwamaAttack https://t.co/XXhstivAKl

— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2020

While he refused to spell out the precaution that is taken during troop movements in the aftermath of the February 14 attack, officials in the security establishment said the movement of troops is now done in coordination with other security forces and the army.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had also allowed the CRPF to carry its troops by air to avoid the possibility of any such attack.

The Jammu and Kashmir government had imposed a ban on plying of private vehicles on two days in a week to facilitate the movement of troops. The order was later rescinded after the situation became normal.

The process of bullet-proofing of vehicles carrying the troops was expedited and more and more bunker-type vehicles were seen on roads carrying the jawans.

On February 14, 2019, a powerful explosion rocked a convoy of vehicles carrying the security personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Jammu and Kashmir, on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway at Latoomode in Pulwama district. The powerful explosion, triggered by a suicide bomber carrying explosives in a car, reduced a CRPF bus to a mangled heap of iron and 40 jawans lost their lives.

The memorial has been set up inside a CRPF camp adjacent to the place where Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Adeel Ahmed Dar, driving an explosive-laden car, blew himself next to a convoy of security forces killing the 40 personnel.

Almost all the conspirators behind the dastardly attack have since been killed with the last one being Qari Yasir, the self-styled chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group, who was killed last month.