February 14, 2021 marks two years of the Pulwama terror attack when 40 valiant Indian soldiers were killed after a suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into the security convoy carrying them. Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) had claimed responsibility for the dastardly terror attack.
The union defence minister Rajnath Singh, union home minister Amit Shah, vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several others paid tribute to the martyred CRPF soldiers.
"I pay homage to those brave @crpfindia personnel who sacrificed their lives in 2019 Pulwama terror attack. India will never forget their service to the nation and their supreme sacrifice. We continue to stand with their families, who had to suffer due to this attack (sic)," tweeted Rajnath Singh.
"I bow down to the brave martyrs who lost their lives in the gruesome Pulwama attack on this day in 2019. India will never forget their exceptional courage and supreme sacrifice (sic)," tweeted Amit Shah.
"Tribute to the brave soldiers, who died in the Pulwama terror attack. A tribute to their families as the country owes you," Rahul Gandhi tweeted (in Hindi).
The attack on the CRPF convoy took place in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, 2019. A 22-year-old suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the bus. The convoy had 78 buses in which around 2,500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar.
Days later India carried out an airstrike on JeM's Balakot terror training camp in Pakistan. India had also withdrawn the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan following the terror attack. The international community had expressed its strong support to India in the wake of the terror attack.
The memorial having names of all 40 jawans killed in the attack was inaugurated on February 14, 2020, at CRPF's Training Centre at Lethpora camp in Pulwama. The memorial is inscribed with the names of all the 40 troopers along with their photographs and the motto of the CRPF -- "Seva and Nishtha" (Service and Loyalty).
Remembering the sacrifice of the Bravehearts, netizens took to social media to pay homage to the CRPF personnel who laid their lives for the nation.
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) ASI Mohan Lal who lost his life during the Pulwama attack in 2019, was awarded the President Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) posthumously on the eve of Republic Day 2021.
Mohan Lal was awarded the medal for spotting the IED-laden car and having fired to stop the car before it rammed into a bus in the convoy that killed the suicide bomber and 40 CRPF personnel on February 14, 2019.
(With inputs from ANI)
