Three Years of Pulwama Attack: one of the deadliest terror attacks
New Delhi: Three years back, 40 Indian Bravehearts martyred in one of the deadliest terror attacks on security forces – which had nearly brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. Every Indian shed tears on that fateful day after a cowardly attack from the Pakistani side.
On February 14, 2019, a convoy of 78 vehicles transporting more than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel from Jammu to Srinagar was traveling on National Highway 44.
At Lethpora near Awantipora, around 3:15 pm, a bus carrying security personnel was rammed by a car carrying explosives. It caused a blast that killed 40 CRPF personnel of the 76th Battalion on the spot and injured many others.
Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) 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.
Post the dastardly attack, tensions flared up between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister asserted that the security forces have been given permission to choose the timing, place, and nature of their response to the Pulwama terror attack. India then launched a counter-terror airstrike against a JeM training camp. In the wee hours of February 26, 2019, the IAF jets bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camps in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan and avenged the Pulwama terrorist attack.
The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured its pilot Wing Commander Abhinanadan Varthaman, who was later released. The Indian Air Force (IAF) foiled an attempt by PAF to strike at military installations in Jammu and Kashmir. In the aerial skirmish, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman piloting a MiG-21 Bison aircraft shot down a much-advanced F-16 of PAF.
(_Vinayak)
