Officials struggle to put names to slain men

Officials struggled to put names to CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama terror attack on Thursday afternoon, as most bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

The impact of the blast was huge and all the 39 personnel present in the CRPF bus were killed. Another personnel who was standing guard on the road was also killed.

After the process of identifying the bodies was over early on Friday, they were placed in caskets, wrapped in the tricolour and were put in a row at Recruit Training Centre at Humhama in Srinagar for the wreath laying ceremony.

The process of airlifting the caskets to the homes of the deceased could only begin at 4 p.m. on Friday after Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik and Home Minister Rajnath Singh participated in the ceremony. Among those killed, 12 belonged to Uttar Pradesh, five from Rajasthan, four from Punjab, two each from Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and one each from Kerala, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

The bodies were brought to the Palam airbase on Friday night, from where they were being transported to the respective locations.

The Uttarakhand Assembly unanimously passed a resolution offering one month salary by every member to help families of those who laid down their lives. The Uttar Pradesh government announced an ex gratia of ₹25 lakh each to the families of the 12 CRPF jawans who belonged to that State. Tripura government decided to pay ₹2 lakh each to the families of martyred security men.