Car bomb attack kills 44 Indian soldiers in Occupied Kashmir

SRINAGAR: At least 44 Indian soldiers were killed and dozens injured in Indian Occupied Kashmir on Thursday in the deadliest attack on Indian forces in over a decade, reported Kashmir Media Service.

The attack took place at the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Awantipora area of Pulwama district. The soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off as a convoy of military vehicles drove by, some 20 kilometres from the main city of Srinagar.

"An IED went off as a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) convoy passed by," senior police officer Munir Ahmed Khan told news agency AFP.

CRPF spokesman Sanjay Kumar said that the explosives were inside a car, while local media reports said the explosive-laden vehicle was driven into the convoy.

"It was a powerful explosion. The explosive was car-borne," Kumar told AFP.

The explosion was heard from several kilometres away. Mohammad Yunis, a journalist who reached the site minutes after the explosion, told Reuters he saw blood and body parts scattered along a 100-metre stretch on the highway.

Kashmir's Police Chief S.P. Pani said the CRPF had suffered major damage. "It is a terror incident and we are looking into the possibility of what led to the blast. We are going to go for post blast investigation," he said.

The seriously wounded were shifted to Indian army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar, KMS reported earlier.

Thursday's attack was the deadliest on Indian forces in IoK in more than a decade. In September 2016, 19 Indian soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn attack on the Uri army camp. 

In May 2002, 34 people were killed at an Indian army camp in Kaluchak in Jammu city.

Indian Occupied Kashmir has been plagued by violence for years, with clashes between Indian forces and freedom fighters killing more than 100 civilians over the past year.