‘Only We Know the Pain’: Pulwama Martyrs’ Families Mark 7 Years, Seek Promised Honours

Seven years after a suicide bombing killed 40 paramilitary personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, families of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) martyrs gathered Saturday to remember their loved ones, saying the pain of loss remains as sharp as ever. A suicide bomber on February 14, 2019, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, killing 40 personnel. The attack, claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, triggered nationwide outrage and led to retaliatory airstrikes by India in Balakot days later.In Punjab’s Moga district, Sukhjit Kaur, the widow of CRPF driver Jaimal Singh, said some promises made to honour her husband have yet to be fulfilled. A stadium announced in his

name has not been built, and a memorial gate on Ghalauti Road remains incomplete, she said.“Only we know how difficult it is to spend a life without him,” Kaur told PTI Videos.

Singh was driving the CRPF bus that was targeted in the attack. Kaur said her son, who was five-and-a-half years old when his father died, is now 12 and often speaks about him. “He now understands that what has happened cannot be changed,” she said.In Tarn Taran district’s Gandiwind village, relatives of CRPF martyr Sukhjinder Singh marked the anniversary by paying tribute and recalling his sacrifice. His brother, Gurjant Singh, urged authorities to upgrade a government school named after Sukhjinder to include classes up to the 12th grade and to complete a stadium being built in his memory.

Across the country, political leaders paid homage to the slain personnel.Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, “Remembering the brave heroes who laid down their lives in Pulwama on this day in 2019. Their devotion, resolve and service to the nation remain forever etched in our collective consciousness. Every Indian draws strength from their enduring courage”.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge added, “We pay our deepest homage to the brave martyrs of Bharat Mata, who laid down their lives in Pulwama.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “My heartfelt tributes to our brave soldiers who were martyred in the daring terrorist attack in Pulwama in 2019. The nation will forever remain indebted to them for their supreme sacrifice in the defence of Mother India.”