A martyr's memorial is being planned on a hilltop in Pulwama to honour the 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel killed in the 2019 attack
A bravehearts' memorial is being planned on a hilltop in Pulwama to honour the 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel killed in the 2019 attack, officials said, which would be one of the largest in Kashmir.
“The force has already floated an expression of interest for bidders who want to be part of the project. Work on it will start on a war footing. It will be ready by next year,” an official aware of the development said, seeking anonymity. Nearly two acres of the hilltop would be landscaped and developed as a historical site.
There will be an art installation at the memorial, which will be able to withstand all weather conditions, keeping in mind the topography of the hilltop, according to an expression of interest document released by the CRPF earlier this month. “The art installation should be remarkable and large enough to be visible from large distances, including aerial distance,” the document for bidders said.
On February 14, 2019, 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives after a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives into a convoy when it was passing through Lethpora in Pulwama district. A convoy of 78 vehicles with over 2,500 CRPF personnel were on NH44 when the attack took place.
The attack on the security forces, one of the deadliest in Jammu and Kashmir, prompted the army and paramilitary forces to come up with a new standard safety protocol while moving convoys in the valley. Large parts of NH44, which were earlier not covered by CCTV cameras, are now under round-the-clock surveillance.
“For the past two years, our top officers had been working to build a large symbolic memorial for the martyrs. During the discussions, it was planned to be set up at the same place where the brave hearts died in the line of duty,” a CRPF officer said, declining to be named. “The memorial will have different sections on the other martyrs of CRPF. The place will also showcase the historical importance of the paramilitary force in internal security. The memorial in the coming years will be made a place of national importance.”
The CRPF, India's largest paramilitary force, is deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for law-and-order arrangements, security and anti-terror operations.
The National Investigation Agency, which investigated the case, charged 19 people, including United Nations listed terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, Rauf Asghar, Ammar Alvi, their nephew Umar Farooq (who had come to India to execute the attack and was killed in a gunfight on March 29, 2019), and 12 others who assisted in reconnaissance, logistics and assembling the car- laden bomb.
