One year of Pulwama terror attack: What happened and how India responded

Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after the convoy of 78 buses, in which around 2500 CRPF personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar, came under attack.

It was around 3.

Around 40 CRPF personnel were killed when their convoy was targeted by the suicide bomber of Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pulwama district.

Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after the convoy of 78 buses, in which around 2500 CRPF personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar, came under attack.

Nationwide protests erupted against the dastardly terror attack even as the country bid goodbye to its bravehearts. Leaders across the party lines and civil society condemned the attack and called for an appropriate response.

"I feel the same fire in my heart that's raging inside you," Prime Minister Narendra Modi would declare on February 17, days after the attack took place.

A day before, he had said that "all tears will be avenged" and the armed forces have been given "full freedom to decide the place, time, intensity and nature of the retaliation against the enemy".

United Nations and several countries from across the globe condemned the Pulwama terror attack and extended their support to India in the fight against terrorism.

China, the "all-weather friend" of Pakistan also backed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on the "heinous and cowardly" Pulwama terror attack that was unanimously adopted by permanent and non-permanent member countries of the global body.

Following the dastardly attack, India had launched extensive diplomatic efforts to get JeM chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist, which finally became a reality on May 1 when China lifted its technical hold on a proposal introduced by the US, the UK, and France in the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council.

Around 12 days after the terror attack, in the wee hours of February 26, Indian Air Force jets bombed the JeM camp in Balakot, in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

China claims credit for 'constructive role' in reducing India-Pak tension

A Pakistani minister said China and the United Arab Emirates also intervened to lessen tension between the south Asian neighbors.

China played a “constructive role” in reducing tension between Pakistan and India, the foreign ministry said, after the nuclear-armed rivals almost came to blows last month following an attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy in disputed Kashmir.

The sparring threatened to spiral out of control and only interventions by U.S. officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, headed off a bigger conflict, five sources familiar with the events have told Reuters.

At one stage, India threatened to fire at least six missiles at Pakistan, and Islamabad said it would respond with its own missile strikes “three times over”, said Western diplomats and government sources in New Delhi, Islamabad and Washington.

A Pakistani minister said China and the United Arab Emirates also intervened to lessen tension between the south Asian neighbors.

In a faxed statement to Reuters late on Monday, responding to a question on China’s role in reining in the crisis, its foreign ministry said peaceful coexistence between Pakistan and India was in everyone’s interest.

“As a friendly neighbor of both India and Pakistan, China pro-actively promoted peace talks and played a constructive role in easing the tense situation,” it said.

“Some other countries also made positive efforts in this regard,” the ministry added.

China is willing to work with the international community to continue to encourage the neighbors to meet each other half way and use dialogue and peaceful means to resolve differences, it said, without elaborating.

The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, is set to meet Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing later on Tuesday.

The Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary police was the deadliest in Kashmir’s 30-year-long insurgency, escalating tension between the neighbors, who said they shot down each other’s fighter jets late last month.

China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather” friends, but China has also been trying to improve ties with New Delhi.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal summit in China last year agreeing to reset relations, and Xi is expected to visit India sometime this year, diplomatic sources say.

Business Standard

India-Pakistan tension: Threat of further escalation over, says Pak govt

The official told journalists that Pakistan did not foresee any further "aggressive action" from India, the report said.

The threat of further escalation between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack is over, an internal assessment of the Pakistan government has concluded.

The Express Tribune reported that the assessment was shared by a senior official on Monday in a background briefing on the current state of relations between the two neighbouring countries.

"There is a visible de-escalation in tension," the official said.

The official told journalists that Pakistan did not foresee any further "aggressive action" from India, the report said.

Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26.

The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

ALSO READ: India-Pakistan tensions may not impact insurance covers, say experts

There was fear that India may launch more strikes or escalate the situation to end the crisis on a high note, the paper said.

When asked whether Pakistan feared another possible misadventure' by India before the elections in the country, the official confidently replied: "There is no room for such aggressive action from India".

The upbeat assessment of the government is apparently linked to hectic diplomacy involving many regional and international players, seeking de-escalation in tensions between the two countries, the paper said.

In a first sign of easing of tensions, Pakistani and Indian high commissioners resumed their diplomatic work in Islamabad and New Delhi on Saturday.

Both countries called back their envoys for consultations soon after the Pulwama attack.

India handed over to Pakistan a dossier on "specific details" of involvement of the JeM in the attack.

Business Standard

DRDO develops 'combat drugs' to reduce casualties in Pulwama type attacks

Citing the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama where 40 CRPF soldiers were killed, the defence lab said the medicines could have brought down the death toll.

With 90 per cent of gravely wounded security personnel succumbing to injuries within a few hours, DRDO's medical laboratory has come up with a range of 'combat casualty drugs' that can extend the golden hour till the trooper is shifted to hospital.

The spectrum includes bleeding wound sealants, super absorptive dressings and glycerated salines, all of which can save lives in the event of warfare in jungle and high altitude areas as well as in terror attacks, scientists said.

Citing the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama where 40 CRPF soldiers were killed, they said the medicines could have brought down the death toll.

According to developers of the drugs at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, chances of survival and minimum disability are highest when effective first aid care is given within the golden hour.

Scientists at INMAS, entrusted with research and development in a number of areas concerning the defence sector, said the main battlefield emergencies are excess bleeding, sepsis, shock, hypovolemia (decreased blood volume) and pain

DRDO's indigenously made medicines will be a boon for paramilitary and defence personnel during warfare, said A K Singh, director general of life sciences at the organisation.

“These medicines will ensure that our brave soldiers do not suffer from unwanted blood loss while being taken to a better healthcare from war zones,” he told PTI.

The challenges are many. There is only one medical person and limited equipment to take care of soldiers during combat in most cases. This is compounded by battlefield conditions such as forests, hilly terrain and inaccessibility of vehicles, experts said.

Among the drugs developed is glycerated saline, a battlefield intravenous fluid that does not freeze till -18 degrees Celsius and is useful in handling trauma cases in high altitude areas.

According to Manju Bala Popli, senior scientist at INMAS, glycerated saline, unlike normal saline, reduces inflammation. The drug can be life saving, particularly if the traumatic edema, collection of fluid in tissues and cavities of the body, is in the brain or lungs.

Business Standard

Flirting with nukes: India, Pakistan have become captives of own propaganda

Someone has to break this dangerous cycle. Ensuring that Pakistan's latest crackdown on jihadists is for real is the best place to start.

Business Standard : If you had to name the man most likely to spark a nuclear war, who would you pick? Kim Jong Un? Here’s another candidate: Masood Azhar, the founder of the Pakistani jihadist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed.

After three weeks of dramatically escalating tensions, India and Pakistan appear to have pulled back from the brink of war—for now. But the larger question remains: What does the Pakistani army’s longstanding policy of nurturing jihadist groups mean for stability in South Asia? As an increasingly nationalist India grows more assertive, Pakistan’s jihadists could inadvertently trigger a catastrophic war.

JeM stands at the center of the continuing confrontation between the two nuclear-armed nations. It flared up with a Valentine’s Day suicide car-bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers. On Feb. 26, Indian warplanes retaliated by bombing a JeM training camp in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the first attack across the international border since the 1971 war that turned East Pakistan into independent Bangladesh.

On Feb. 27, the Pakistani air force bombed Indian targets in Kashmir but did not cause material damage—exercising deliberate restraint, in Pakistan’s telling. In the scramble that followed, Pakistan downed an Indian MiG-21 and captured its pilot. His return two days later cooled temperatures somewhat, but the countries continue to exchange artillery fire along the line of control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir.

More than a week after India’s airstrikes, the facts remain fuzzy. Citing commercial satellite images, international experts have cast doubts on Indian claims that its airstrikes hit a terrorist camp and eliminated “a very large number of JeM terrorists.” Pakistan’s government says India’s bombs hit a clump of trees. The Pakistani media gleefully reported that India martyred an unfortunate crow.

So far, India has also failed to provide credible evidence that one of its Soviet-era MiG-21s shot down a Pakistani F-16. Virtually nobody outside India believes the more lurid stories, tom-tommed by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party politicians, of hundreds of hapless jihadists vaporized by India’s high-tech, Israeli-made bombs. Nor has Pakistan backed up its boast of downing an Indian Sukhoi-30 fighter.

The details matter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election prospects in a few months hinge partly on his image as a strongman, unafraid to take India’s fight against terrorism to Pakistan. A tale of eliminating 250 bloodthirsty jihadists obviously plays better than one of accidentally felling a pocket of forest.

Terrorists being trained to carry out operations through sea: Navy chief

'We have seen how quickly terror groups evolve across the globe', said Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.

Weeks after the Pulwama attack, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday warned that there are reports about terrorists being trained to carry out operations through the sea.

Addressing a gathering of global experts at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue here, Lanba said the Pulwama attack was perpetrated by extremists that were "aided by a State" that seeks to destabilise India.

"We also have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi, including through the medium of the sea," he said.

The 26/11 attack was carried out by 10 sea-borne terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, who hijacked an Indian fishing trawler to reach Mumbai and unleash mayhem.

The Navy chief said this part of the world had witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years and few countries in the region had been spared.

ALSO READ: Balakot: India's strategic restraint has given way to 'assured retaliation'

The global nature that terrorism has acquired in the recent times has further enhanced the scope of this threat, Lanba said.

India, however, faces a "far more serious" version of "state-sponsored" terrorism, he said.

"We recently saw the horrific scale of the extremist attack in Jammu and Kashmir about three weeks ago. This violence was perpetrated by extremists aided and abetted by a State that seeks to destabilise India," the Navy chief said without naming Pakistan.

On February 14, a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, killing 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.

"We have seen how quickly terror groups evolve across the globe. A particular brand of terror can well become a global problem in near future," Lanba warned.

The Indian security establishment is continuously working to address this menace, he said, noting that "it is imperative that the global community works in concert to contain and eliminate terrorism in all its forms".

IAF hit the target in Balakot; we don't count kills: Air Chief BS Dhanoa

Air Chief said it was up to the goverment to calculate the number of casualties in the strike.

Speaking on air strikes carried out by Indian Air Force (IAF) across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa on Monday said that the IAF had hit the target in Balakot, otherwise why would Pakistan Prime Minister have responded.

"If we dropped bombs in the jungles, then why would he respond?", said Dhanoa.

He further added saying, "Death toll depends on the number of people present in the target, IAF doesn't count the number of dead", said the IAF chief.

"IAF is not in a position to clarify the number of casualties. The government will clarify that. We don't count human casualties, we count what targets we have hit or not", clarified Dhanoa.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said that MiG21 used in shooting down Pakistan F-16 is an upgraded aircraft with advanced weapons system and the casualty figure in air strike on Balakot camp will be given by the government.

When asked when IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be back his fighter jet cockpit, IAF chief Dhanoa said, "Whether he (Wing Commander Abhinandan) flies or not depends on his medical fitness.

That's why post-ejection, he has undergone a medical check. Whatever treatment required, will be given. Once we get his medical fitness, he will get into fighter cockpit," he said.

Business Standard

India-Pak conflict: Senators urge Trump to pursue peaceful resolution

They also urged Trump to ensure that Pakistan does more against the terrorist groups.

Business Standard : Two influential American Senators Thursday urged the US President Donald Trump to pursue a peaceful resolution to the India-Pak conflict including working with regional actors to apply pressure on New Delhi and Islamabad to address the underlying causes of the dispute.

In a letter, Senators Jerry Moran from Kansas and Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire said that there is a urgency surrounding the dangerous situation between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region.

They also urged Donald Trump to ensure that Pakistan does more against the terrorist groups.

We affirm India's right to self-defense in response to attacks planned and executed by Pakistani-based terrorist groups designated by the United States and United Nations and welcome Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent decision to release a captured Air Force officer from India, the two Senators wrote.

Tensions between India and Pakistan rose following the February 14 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the attack, India bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control (LoC) early Tuesday, killing a "very large number" of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders.

ALSO READ: LIVE: Pakistan to return IAF pilot today; Amarinder wants to receive him

Pakistan detained Indian Air Force Pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, Wednesday following a fierce engagement between air forces of the two sides along the Line of Control when his MiG 21 fighter jet was downed.

However, in a surprise announcement during a joint session of Parliament, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Thursday that the captured IAF pilot Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace.

The two American Senators said that they have ongoing concerns that this crisis may scale into an all-out war given the thousands of troops amassed along the countries' border, heavy artillery barrages and gunfire recorded in the area and tank columns taking formation.

By bombing Balakot, India has struck ideological heart of Pak-based terror

Balakot is where a 19th century leader who waged jihad against Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Sikh kingdom was killed in battle, and has come to be revered by Pakistan-based terrorists.

When Indian Air Force (IAF) jets on Tuesday bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp in Pakistan’s Balakot, a pre-dawn strike, they might also have struck at the ideological root of Maulana Masood Azhar's terrorist organisation.

While Pakistan claims ‘payload’ was dropped in Balakote, a place with a similar name within Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, IAF’s Mirage 2000 aircraft are said to have crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and struck a JeM camp on the banks of the Kunhar river in Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), one of the four administrative provinces of Pakistan.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said: "In an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot... This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of JeM chief Masood Azhar."

Rohan Gunaratna and Khuram Iqbal’s 2011 book Pakistan: Terrorism Ground Zero, seems to confirm that JeM operated a "large training camp for between 800 and 1,000 recruits at Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa". According to the book, the camp was administered by "Yousuf, a Christian convert to Islam from Sindh who is married to Azhar's sister". The JeM facility at Balakot was called the ‘Syed Ahmad Shaeed’ training camp, Gunaratna and Iqbal wrote, adding that Indian sources said the camp was still functional in early 2003, even after the group was banned in January 2002.

If the name of the camp is anything to go by, JeM's “biggest training camp” that India struck, and the town that it is associated with, might have had an ideological and symbolic significance for many Pakistan-based terrorist organisations. That seems to be borne by the association of Sayyid Ahmad of Rae Bareli, or Syed Ahmad Shaheed Barelvi as he is also known, with Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

ALSO READ: IAF air strike LIVE: Pak jets violate Indian air space in J&K, says report

Sayyid Ahmad famously waged a war — a ‘jihad’, in fact — against Ranjit Singh's Sikh kingdom in the early years of the 19th century. In her book Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia, historian Ayesha Jalal wrote: "The historical significance of the war (Sayyid Ahmad's jihad) lies in the indelible imprint it has left on the subcontinental Muslim psyche."

Sayyid Ahmad's "revival of the ideology of jihad became the prototype for subsequent Islamic militant movements in South and Central Asia," writes Husain Haqqani, the former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, in The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups.

Business Standard

Pulwama attack: IOC wants India isolated after Pak sportsmen denied visa

The IOC said it will not allow India to organise Olympic-related events in the future, unless written assurances are obtained from the government.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suspended all Indian applications to host future events for denying two Pakistani athletes visas to compete in New Delhi. IOC has also urged other international sports federations not to stage any competition in India.

The Olympic committee also revoked the Olympic qualification status for the men's 25m rapid fire event from the New Delhi World Cup due to denial of visas to the Pakistani shooters in the wake of last week's Pulwama terrorist attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. “This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition.”

India has accused its neighbour of not doing enough to control the militant groups responsible for the Kashmir attacks. Pakistan has denied any involvement.

The IOC said the refusal of visas for competitors went against the principles of the Olympic charter relating to discrimination and political interference from the host country.

“Since becoming aware of the issue, and in spite of intense last-minute ... efforts ... and discussions with the Indian government authorities, no solution has been found to allow the Pakistani delegation to enter India in time to compete,” the IOC statement said.

The IOC said it will not allow India to organise Olympic-related events in the future, unless written assurances are obtained from the government.

The two Pakistani shooters' participation in the tournament had become doubtful after the terrorist attack had been reported.

The IOC's decision comes hours after International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) President Vladimir Lisin announced that all the allotted 16 Olympic quotas for the 2020 Games would be scrapped. However, the apex body limited the withholding of quotas to only two while retaining 14.

"The IOC restricted the withdrawal of recognition as an Olympic qualification event to the 25m rapid fire pistol competition in which the two Pakistani athletes were supposed to participate. This happened in the interest of the other 500 athletes from 61 countries participating in the other events who are already in India for their competition," the IOC said in a statement after its executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland Thursday.

Business Standard

Wagah Border ceremony offers a glimpse of India's response to Pulwama attack

How the beating retreat ceremony at India- Pakistan border checkpost looks, and feels, in wake of the Pulwama attack.

Pulwama Attack : 'Please don't raise slogans other than Bharat Mata ki Jai, Hindustan Zindabaad and Vande Mataram,' the parade anchor repeatedly cautions the audience which has gathered to witness the beating retreat ceremony at Wagah-Attari.

Emotions run high among all those who have gathered here. On any other day, one would expect intense patriotism and a little bit of anger at Pakistan. Not today. It has not been a week since a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle laden with explosives into a convoy of paramilitary personnel. The blood of the 40 soldiers, who might have been sharing wisecracks one moment and were blown up the next, hasn't dried.

(Business Standard)

When a group of youngsters hurls expletives at Pakistan, a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan raps them. "Is this why you guys have gathered here?" he reprimands in a bada bhai tone. Most of us are confused what our response should be.

Schoolchildren sitting on the front row turn backwards. Two of their accompanying elders, presumably teachers, ask them to 'look at the mazedaar outfits of the parade party.'

On a usual day, middle-aged elders in the crowd would have taken exception to the youngsters. Perhaps, sneered at them if not asked them to behave. But today they seem to be unsure if Pakistan doesn't deserve a mouthful.

After the attack, one which Sachin Tendulkar, who never sledged back no matter however nasty the opposition got, called 'dastardly', the generally well-behaved Indian has been at a loss, searching for ways to chip away at the enemy - - on social media and chai shops alike.

For the last half an hour, the sun has been troubling us. Curious members of the audience try hard to shield their eyes against the sun with their hands and look across the gates. They want to know what's happening on the other side of the border. Geography intends a pun at this site. The sun rises in India, the east, and sets in Pakistan, the west.

A jawan invites women members of the audience to the parade track to dance to patriotic songs. Ladies make a beeline and flood the 25-30 yards wide stage. The crowd has ceased shifting in their seats. We sing along and cheer the volunteers. A R Rahman's Oscar winning 'Jai Ho' entices those seated to shake a leg and break a jig. When 'Suno gaurseduniyawalon, burinazarna hum pe daalo' plays, some members of the troupe change their stance from the audience - facing to Pakistan - facing. We cheer them loud enough to send the message across.

Strategies for Pulwama-like attacks trace back to ISI HQ: Christine Fair

Pakistan may try more attacks via proxy because this is the only way it can show India that it is not defeated, no matter how powerful India becomes.

In the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack, India needs a discussion about what is in its best interest — should it continue with its strategy of restraint or change its behaviour — says C Christine Fair, author of In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War. Fair tells Bhaswar Kumar in an interview that terrorist attacks like Pulwama will continue because this is the only way Pakistan can show India that it is not defeated, no matter how powerful India becomes. Edited excerpts:

Do you think successive Indian governments’ strategic thinking has been to bide time and avoid a large confrontation with Pakistan in the interest of economic growth?

Indian governments do not say so. Unlike the US, India does not have a written National Security Strategy (NSS). Each American President has to issue an NSS and this is the standard by which informed citizens can monitor the budget and other applications of national powers. Few countries have NSS documents. These are helpful documents, as they effect a public debate and provide a road map for the elected government.

So, though one could not be certain, one could infer a general avoidance of confrontation from the Indian government's behaviour. And, it seems to be a constant since the post-Kargil time.

India understands that if it can keep focusing on its economy, it can continue increasing its defence allocation in real terms, with its overall economy continuing to grow. That will allow India to outgrow the Pakistan threat.

For its part, Pakistan understands that it has an army that cannot win the wars that it starts, and nuclear weapons that it cannot use, so it must demonstrate that India's hegemonic goals are not unchallenged. This means Pakistan must attack India through proxy actors under its nuclear umbrella, just to demonstrate that India has not defeated it or forced it into accepting the status quo.

In other words, these terrorist attacks will continue because it is the only way Pakistan can show India it does not stand defeated, no matter how powerful India becomes.

As for India, there is some value in its strategy: More people die of roads accidents in a day than those from terror in a year. But, car accidents cannot be a political issue; terror attacks can be.

Business Standard

Army confirms Pakistan hand in Pulwama, says attack avenged within 100 hrs

On Monday, three JeM terrorists were killed in a 16-hour encounter in Pinglan in Pulwama district, about 12 km from the site of the February 14 attack.

The Pulwama suicide bombing was masterminded by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Pakistan's ISI, a senior Indian Army officer said on Tuesday, five days after 40 CRPF personnel were killed in one of the deadliest terror attacks in the Valley.

Corps Commander Lt Gen K J S Dhillon of the Chinar Corps said this in a joint press conference by IG Kashmir S P Pani and IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hasan.

He also said he requested mothers of Kashmiri militants to persuade their sons to surrender.'

"Anyone who picks up the gun will be eliminated," the officer said.

According to Dhillon, security forces had been tracking the top leadership of the JeM since the February 14 bombing in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.

ALSO READ: Pulwama attack LIVE: Army says those who pick up gun in J&K will be killed

"We have eliminated the top commander who carried out the Pulwama attack," Dhillon said.

On Monday, three JeM terrorists were killed in a 16-hour encounter in Pinglan in Pulwama district, about 12 km from the site of the February 14 attack. An Army major and five others were also killed.

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Congress alleges 'security lapses' in Pulwama, asks Modi to 'walk the talk'

Another senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also hit out at the government over the Pulwama terror attack on Tuesday.

The Congress on Tuesday attacked the government over the Pulwama terror strike, alleging "huge security lapses", and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "walk the talk".
The Congress in the last few days had avoided directly attacking the government after Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that his party isnot going to have any conversation over the next couple of days other than the fact that "our most beloved people have been killed, their families need us, and we are going to stand with them".

However, signalling a shift in stance on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted: "Congress highly responsible and very restrained post Pulwama. Modi pre-2014 made highly provocative statements including resignation calls for then PM (Manmohan Singh) at smallest incident."

"We do not do so post Uri, post Parliament attack, post Pulwama. But huge security lapses have to to be plugged for no recurrence," he said.

ALSO READ: LIVE: We avenged Pulwama attack in less than 100 hrs, says army chief

Such "huge security lapses" including the "ridiculous idea" of moving 2,500 jawans in 78 vehicles at one go, allowing any civilian vehicle on road simultaneously, ignoring direct written intelligence reports on Jaish suicide attack since December 2018," he tweeted.

Is this attention to detail by "56 chest"?, he said.

At a press conference on Monday, Singhvi, when askedwhy the Congress was silent on the alleged "failures" of the government leading to the Pulwama attack, had said he as well as many other Congressmen and non-Congressmen had tweeted their concerns in the first few hours after the attack.

Another senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also hit out at the government over the Pulwama terror attack on Tuesday.

"Modi ji you say: It's over, the time to talk. You maybe right, but: It's time to walk the talk," he said in a tweet.

"Promise us: No more 'japphis'. No more birthday bashes," he said in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Modi's surprise visitto Pakistan in December 2015, coinciding with Pakistan's then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's birthday.

Pulwama attack: Indian-Americans across US mourn soldiers' death

Participants urged the Indian government "to take steps to severely punish" the JeM and other terrorist organisations.

Pulwama Attack : Hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered in various US cities to mourn the killing of over 40 Indian soldiers in one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

At least 41 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed on February 14 in a suicide attack claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group.

(Business Standard)

The attack has heightened bilateral tensions with both New Delhi and Islamabad calling back their envoys.

Expressing their outrage, hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered at the 9/11 memorial on the outskirts of Chicago on Sunday and urged that all nations need to stand together with India and the US in their fight against those carrying out such "heinous crimes".

In a joint resolution read out on the occasion, the participants held peaceful candle light protest in Naperville, Illinois and called upon Pakistan to "end immediately" support to all terrorist groups operating from its soil.

"We mourn the loss of 40 Indian security personnel at the hands of terrorists. This was an act of terror, an act of pure evil. We must be firm in the face of evil and terror," said Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi in his address.

"The threat of terrorism is not stronger than either the will of the Indian people, the American people or the people of the world. Our will is stronger. We will deal firmly with terrorism. We will deal firmly with sponsors of terrorism. In this year of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we will continue to be people of nonviolence, peace and we will continue to open our arms to those who seek to engage with us peacefully," he said.

"We will defend ourselves, but we will not change our own character," Krishnamoorthi said.

Similar events were held in Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Detroit, Tampa, Houston, and Phoenix.

Participants of the candle light protest urged the Indian government "to take steps to severely punish" the JeM and other terrorist organisations.

Expressing solidarity with people of India and with the government, the diaspora demanded that the UN designate JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist.

Today the Indian community is grieving for those who have been killed and wounded in this inhuman attack, said Krishna Bansal, one of the organisers.