Amit Shah draws brickbats for holding political meeting despite Pulwama terror attack

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah faced scathing criticism on Twitter on Thursday for going ahead with his political meeting in Karnataka’s Hospet district, despite the terror tragedy that took place earlier in the day in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Shah was trolled despite having tweeted out a statement condemning the attack earlier in the evening, and also hitting out at the Pakistan-backed perpetrators of the terror assault during his speech. Many Twitter follower of Shah and BJP expressed their displeasure over his decision to address the political event in the first place.

Congress general secretary (eastern UP) Priyanka Gandhi earlier in the day called off a scheduled press meeting in Lucknow in the wake of the attack.

Reactions to Shah’s public meeting in the evening ranged from criticism to downright abuse, soon after the live streaming of his speech began on social media.

“40 people just died in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kashmir in many years. But hey the show must go on (sic),” wryly commented a Twitter user.

On BJP’s own Twitter account, viewers said that the BJP president must be ashamed of himself for making political speeches after the death of more than 40 jawans.

At least 42 CRPF troopers were killed when a suicide bomber owing allegiance to terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad rammed an explosive laden SUV into one of the buses of a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district.

Police said the suicide bomber-driven SUV came along the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bus when a 78-vehicle convoy carrying 2,547 security personnel was going from the transit camp in Jammu to Srinagar and rammed it into the bus around 3.15 p.m., triggering a deafening explosion.

So devastating was the attack -- one report spoke of 200 kg of explosives, including probably RDX, packed into the SUV -- that the CRPF bus was left in a mangled heap, many of its occupants losing their limbs. The bus was transporting 39 troopers.

CRPF officials said the bus which was the main target of the militants was destroyed fully while another CRPF vehicle was partly damaged. "It is difficult to believe how anyone in that bus could have survived," said a police officer.

Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said it could have been a suicide attack. This was confirmed by other officials later.

In a statement to a local news agency GNS, a caller claiming to be a spokesman of JeM said it was a 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack.

All the injured were shifted to the Army's 92 Base Hospital in the Badamibagh cantonment of Srinagar city. Some of them were in critical condition.

Leaders from government and the opposition, including the Prime Minister and Congress President, have condemned the terror attack, said to be one of the deadliest in recent memory.

(with IANS inputs)