Pulwama terror attack: Deeply disturbed, says Rahul; Surjewala hits out at PM

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday condemned the terrorist attack on the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) convoy in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, terming it as “cowardly.”

“I am deeply disturbed by the cowardly attack on a CRPF convoy in J&K in which 10 of our brave men have been martyred and many others wounded. My condolences to the families of our martyrs. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured,” said Rahul Gandhi.

Fellow Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, the head of party’s Communications Cell, hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the terror assault, calling him a “mute and silent spectator” in the wake of rising terror attacks.

“When will you ensure that the daily terror attack on our jawans and on our civilians are stopped once for all? When will you ensure that the terrorists’ camp emanating from Pakistan and the terrorists which are being pushed every day into Indian soil from Pakistan are checked?” asked Surjewala.

Surjewala said that the Modi government was “the most weak-kneed government” in the history of India in last 70 years, that has utterly failed in defending India’s borders and in checking terrorism coming from Pakistan.

At least 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the Pulwama district when a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the bus they were travelling in, one of the worst terror strikes in the state in recent years, officials said.

More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora.