NEW DELHI: At least 40 Indian security personnel were killed on Thursday in the deadliest attack on government forces in Indian occupied Kashmir in more than two years.
They died when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off as a convoy of military vehicles drove on a highway some 20 kilometres from Srinagar.
“An IED went off as a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) convoy passed by,” senior police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said. “…We are evacuating the injured from the site and don’t have their number at the moment.”
Unconfirmed photos showed the charred remains of at least one vehicle littered across the highway, alongside blue military buses.
It is the deadliest attack on the Indian occupying forces in the held territory since September 2016 when 19 soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn raid on the Uri army camp.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers in occupied Kashmir.
