Pulwama attack: Nirmala Sitharaman cancels all prior commitments for next two days

All prior commitments of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for Saturday and Sunday have been cancelled in wake of the Pulwama attack.

The Defence Minister will be visiting Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to pay last respect to Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans of both states who lost their lives in the Pulwama terror attack.

On Friday, Sitharama paid tributes to 40 CRPF jawans whose mortal remains, wrapped in tricolour, were brought to Palam airport in the national capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday directed the ministers in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states and party MPs to attend the last rites of CRPF jawans, who were martyred in Pulwama terror attack, in their respective states and constituencies.On Friday, Prime Minister Modi, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force paid tributes to the CRPF personnel.Most of the soldiers, who fell victim to the dastardly terror attack in Pulwama that shook the nation, hailed from Uttar Pradesh.Ten of the 40 martyred soldiers were from Uttar Pradesh, five from Rajasthan, four were from Punjab while two each belonged to Maharashtra and Uttarakhand.Other soldiers who lost their lives were from Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Assam, and West Bengal.Nearly 40 CRPF personnel were killed after a suicide bomber attacked a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district with a vehicle laden with explosives.The convoy comprised 78 buses in which around 2,500 personnel were travelling from Jammu to Srinagar.

JeM, a Pakistan-based terrorist group, claimed the responsibility for the attack which left the bus extensively damaged in the blast.Reflecting the outrage in the country, Prime Minister Modi earlier on Friday said, "The blood of Indians is boiling." He issued a clear warning to Pakistan, declaring that the "guardians" of the perpetrators of the Pulwama terror attack will be "definitely punished.