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(The MHA notified air travel for Central Armed Forces, including CRPF, between Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu on on 21 February, 2019, five days after this
story was originally published.)
A grieving CRPF jawan told The Quint on the condition of anonymity after the fidayeen attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir on 14 February which killed 40 jawans. The convoy
comprised over 2,500 CRPF personnel travelling in 78 vehicles.
It turns out the CRPF had indeed requested air transit for the jawans to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) earlier this week. However, the request was ignored.
After the senior official, posted in Srinagar, wrote to the CRPF headquarters, as per procedure the request was forwarded to the MHA.
He further added that earlier also requests were made to transit jawans by air. But they had never been accepted.
In response, the MHA said that “Over the last few years, MHA had significantly enhanced the air courier services for CAPFs (Central Armed Police Forces) in all sectors to help the jawans cut
down on travel time during their journey to and back from home on leave.”
However, MHA pointed out that “in December 2018, MHA has approved enhancement of air support by increasing the routes and flights” between Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi.
A letter was written by the Intelligence Bureau on 8 February to top CPRF officials saying “please sanitise the area properly, as there are inputs of use of IEDs” in the Valley.
But the intelligence note does not provide any specific details on the type of attack or the place and date.
Retired IGP, CRPF VPS Panwar, who had been a convoy commander in the Valley, told The Quint that an attack like this shows complete security failure and that it seems the senior officials
ignored intelligence inputs.
Generally, a convoy doesn’t comprise more than 300-400 jawans and the days of the movement of the convoy is also decided beforehand, he further added.
How did the vehicle, carrying around 200 kgs of explosives, manage to reach the convoy? Wasn’t there enough security for the jawans who were returning from their homes?
Transporting the jawans by air will not only solve the above security loopholes and be faster, “it is also cost-effective although it shouldn’t be a concern for the government”, said the
senior CRPF official.
(The article was originally published on 16 February and has been updated with the MHA’s response to the article on 17 February.)
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