The 2019 Pulwama attack occurred on 14 February 2019, when a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethapora in the Pulwama district of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The attack killed 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel as well as the perpetrator—Adil Ahmad Dar—who was a local Kashmiri youth from the Pulwama district. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group, Jaish-e- Mohammed. India blamed neighboring Pakistan for the attack, while the latter condemned the attack and denied having any connections to it. The attack dealt a severe blow to India-Pakistan relations, consequently resulting in the 2019 India- Pakistan military standoff. Subsequently, Indian investigations identified 19 accused. By August 2021, the main accused along with six others had been killed, and seven had been arrested
History
Kashmir is a disputed territory, claimed both by India and Pakistan with both countries administering part of the territory. Pakistan has sought to gain control of Indian-administered Kashmir. An insurgency began to proliferate in Indian- administered Kashmir in the late 1980s. Pakistan provided the insurgency with material support. Since 1989, about 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the Indian crackdown. According to Time, unrest in Kashmir grew in 2016 after India killed a popular militant leader, Burhan Wani. A rising number of young locals from Indian administered Kashmir have joined the militancy. Many sources state that the majority of militants in Kashmir are now local, not foreign. In 2018 alone, the death toll included 260 militants, 160 civilians, and 150 from government forces.
Since 2015, Pakistan-based militants in Kashmir have increasingly taken to high- profile suicide attacks against the Indian security forces. In July 2015, three gunmen attacked a bus, and police station in Gurdaspur. Early in 2016, four to six gunmen attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station. In February and June 2016, the militants killed nine and eight security personnel respectively in Pampore. In September 2016, four assailants attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri killing 19 soldiers. On 31 December 2017, the Commando Training Centre at Lethpora was also attacked by militants killing five security personnel. These attacks took place in the vicinity of the Jammu Srinagar National Highway.