Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Friday paid tribute to the 40 CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking to social media platform X, the Congress MP expressed her heartfelt respect for the brave martyrs and their families. She wrote, “Salute and heartfelt tribute to our brave soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the Pulwama terror attack. The country will always be indebted to the brave martyrs and their families. Jai Hind.”
In a similar gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tribute to the fallen soldiers, stating, “Homage to the courageous heroes we lost in Pulwama in 2019. The coming generations will never forget their sacrifice and their unwavering dedication to the nation.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah described the attack as a “cowardly act of terrorism” and honored the martyrs by writing on X, “On behalf of the grateful nation, I pay my heartfelt tribute to the soldiers who were martyred in the cowardly terrorist attack in Pulwama on this day in 2019.”
He also reiterated India’s firm stance on combating terrorism, emphasizing, “Terrorism is the biggest enemy of the entire human race, and the whole world has united against it. Be it a surgical strike or an airstrike, the Modi government is determined to completely destroy the terrorists by running a campaign with a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against them.”
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too paid tribute to the brave soldiers, acknowledging their sacrifice and emphasizing the need for unity in the fight against terrorism.
On February 14, 2019, a suicide bomber rammed an IED-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy, killing 40 soldiers. In retaliation, India launched airstrikes on February 26, 2019, targeting Jaish-e-Mohammed camps in Pakistan’s Balakot, eliminating a significant number of terrorists and their infrastructure. The airstrikes led to a military escalation, with Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman being captured by Pakistan after his MiG-21 was shot down during a dogfight.
