The bodies of the soldiers killed in an attack by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on Thursday reach their homes today. As the CRPF soldiers' coffins arrived, hundreds gathered to pay their respect in an emotional moment. People stood on roads with flowers, holding the national flag to receive the soldiers' bodies.
Last evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman, along with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal paid tributes to the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers as their bodies arrived at the Palam airport. PM Modi and the other leaders laid the wreath on the coffins, wrapped in the national flag.
A terrorist drove up a car carrying 60 kg of RDX explosives next to a security convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway and triggered the explosives on Thursday in what is the worst terror attack to take place in Kashmir since the start of the century. US National Security Adviser John Bolton has told Indian counterpart Ajit Doval yesterday that America supports India's right to self-defence after they discussed the Pulwama attack. "I told Ajit Doval today that we support India's right to self-defence. I have spoken to him twice, including this morning... and expressed US' condolences over the terrorist attack," he told news agency PTI. The centre has decided to take all possible diplomatic steps to ensure Pakistan's isolation and had withdrawn "Most Favoured Nation" status to the country.