Pulwama terror attack: He was on phone with wife. Then bomb went off, says family of CRPF jawan

india

Updated: Feb 16, 2019 20:46 IST

Pradeep Kumar was talking on the phone with his wife Neerja but before their conversation could be completed his phone was “switched off”.

Pradeep Kumar, 40, was among the 44 CRPF soldiers killed in the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday afternoon. Eleven other soldiers from Uttar Pradesh were among those on the bus that was ripped apart by the bomb.

The convoy of 78 buses had more than 2,000 Central Reserve Police Force personnel travelling from Jammu to Srinagar and came under attack just 30km away from the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Many others were also left critically wounded.

Neerja, the wife of the resident of Bara Sirohi locality of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, said she made several attempts to call him after that but her calls did not go through.

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She got to know about the attack on the CRPF convoy from television news channels flashing the news. She was upset but there was no way to get any information about her husband.

“In the evening, I got a message from the army control room about the death of my husband. I was shocked at how could it happen within two minutes. Just two minutes ago Pradeep was talking to me,” she said.

Pradeep Kumar, the father of two daughters, was on leave and had left for his station on February 10 and reached Jammu on February 11, Neerja said.

“He loved his younger daughter Manya very much. He was asking about her but before I could tell him in detail about Manya the phone was disconnected,” she said.

Pradeep was educated at BNSD and the DAV Colleges of the city and joined CRPF in 2004. He belonged to the 115 battalion of the CRPF.

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India has slammed Pakistan over the Pulwama terror attack and the ministry of external affairs said that the heinous and despicable act has been perpetrated by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation proscribed by the UN and other countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday delivered a sharp warning to Pakistan and terror groups operating from across the border after CRPF jawans were killed in a deadly terror attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama. Modi, who was speaking to an event to flag off the country’s fastest train, said the country will give a strong reply to this attack.

“If our neighbour, which is totally isolated in the world thinks it can destabilise India through its tactics and conspiracies, then it is making a big mistake,” the Prime Minister said without naming Pakistan.

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