Pulwama attack…it has been a year for the worst terror attacks India has seen recent times. It was a normal day for the security personnel and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans until National Highway 44 was hit by an explosives-laden SUV on the Srinagar-Jammu highway on February 14 last year. The attack has not only took the lives of 40 CRPF jawans but has triggered a flare between the rival countries followed by a surgical strike on terrorist camps in Pakistan.
Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group claimed the attack stating that their member Adil Ahmad Dar rammed a car into a CRPF bus. They also released a video of the assailant from Kakapora who had joined the group a year earlier. However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) till date has not been able to trace the source of high-grade explosives used by the car-borne suicide bomber.
While the forensic report stated that around 25 kg of plastic explosives were used, NIA could not file a charge sheet as all key suspects are dead. The key suspects Mudasir Ahmed Khan and Sajjad Bhat were reportedly killed in an encounter during the surgical strike. One of the NIA officials confronted that it has become difficult to establish the conspiracy as the technical evidence gathered in the case could not be corroborated as none of the suspects are alive.
Though the IP address from which the video was uploaded was tracked down by the Pakistani government it reportedly didn’t come to the rescue. Reacting to the media reports over the lag in the investigation, the NIA authorities stated that they have so far identified the conspirators, suicide attacker and the vehicle provider and are processing to unveil other loops.
