More than 40 Indian paramilitary police have been killed in a bomb attack on their convoy in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Police told the Indian media that a vehicle filled with explosives had rammed a bus carrying the soldiers to Srinagar.
The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yesterday’s attack is the deadliest on Indian occupying forces in Kashmir since the resistance against Indian rule began in 1989.
India has called for global sanctions against Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The Pakistani government said the attack was of “grave concern” but denied suggestions that it had any role behind it.
Both Pakistan and India claim all of Muslim-majority Kashmir but they rule only parts of it.
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The attack
The explosion occurred on the high security Srinagar-Jammu highway about 12 miles from the main city in Indian-occupied Kashmir, Srinagar.
Indian media have reported that around 3.15pm local time (9.45am GMT) a car carrying between 300-350kg of explosives hit a convoy of about 70 cars that was carrying at least 2,500 troops to the Kashmir Valley.
A senior Indian police official told the BBC: “A car overtook the convoy and rammed into a bus with 44 personnel on board.”
The official also said the number of deaths will probably increase because many were “critically injured”.
Reports said that the heavily guarded highway had been closed for a week because of snow.
AFP news agency said Jaish-e Mohammad had told local media that it was responsible for the attack.
The recent attack comes at a time when there’s been an increase in violence in occupied Kashmir when Indian forces killed a popular resistance fighter, 22-year-old Burhan Wani, in 2016.
More than 500 people were killed in 2018 – mainly unarmed civilians, security forces and resistance fighters – the highest death toll in a decade.
Jaish-e Mohammed is a listed terrorist organisation in the UK, the US, the UN, and was banned in Pakistan in 2002.
The group released the following video of Adil Ahmad Dar, 22, who is believed to have carried out the attack.
