Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir highway was closed on Friday following fresh landslides in the sector of Ramban-Ramsoo. The highway had earlier been partially opened for three days.
“Rain has triggered fresh landslides on the highway in Panthal. The operation to remove the debris has started and the highway is likely to be restored for one-way traffic in the afternoon,” an traffic department official said.
“There are around 1,700 trucks carrying essential supplies stranded on the highway. Once the highway is restored, only stranded traffic will be allowed to move from Jammu to Srinagar,” he said.
The partial restoration of the highway led to relief in supply of essentials such as edibles and petroleum products.
Yesterday afternoon, 44 armed forces personnel were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Lethpora area along the Srinagar-Jammu highway in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
An official of the CRPF said that a “suicide car bomber” rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the bus near Lethpora at around 03:15 pm, resulting into an intensive blast in which 44 paramilitary personnel of the CRPF were killed.
“A total of 44 CRPF men belonging to different battalions were travelling in the vehicle when the blast occurred,” the CRPF official said. He said that the CRPF men belonged to 92, 17 and 54 battalions.
The officer said that the wounded CRPF men were shifted to army’s 92 base hospital.
Following the blast traffic was briefly suspended on the highway as forces cordoned off the entire area and launched searches.
Militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility of the attack.
A JeM spokesperson Muhammad Hassan in a statement issued to news agency GNS said “dozens of forces’ vehicles were destroyed in the attack”. The spokesperson identified the driver (of JeM) who carried out the ‘fidayeen’ attack as Aadil Ahmad alias Waqas Commando of Gundi Bagh, Pulwama.
