India pay homage to CRPF personnel martyred in Pulwama attack

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday paid homage to 40 CRPF troopers killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Thursday and laid wreaths on their mortal remains. The bodies of 40 troopers were air-transported in a special plane from Srinagar to Palam airbase in Delhi on Friday evening.

Modi circumambulated the mortal remains after paying tribute. Those present at the wreath-laying ceremony included Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, among others.

The chiefs of the armed forces - Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, Chief of the Naval Staff Sunil Lanba and Army chief General Bipin Rawat - also paid homage along with senior CRPF officers. In the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted in 1989, a suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district, killing at least 49 troopers and leaving the security established stunned.

(With inputs from agencies.)