Pulwama attack: AP govt announces Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia

The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of 49 CRPF jawans killed in the deadly terrorist attack in Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pledging support to the Centre on whatever action it intends to take to stamp out terrorism, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the country would always remember the sacrifices of the jawans.

"The whole country was left in shock as 49 jawans were killed in the worst terror attack. We all should stand in support of the families of the jawans in this hour of grief," he said in a statement here.

The state government decided to offer ex-gratia payment to the slain jawans' families while the people of Andhra Pradesh voiced their protest over the "dastardly" act, the chief minister added.

Earlier, the Telugu Desam Party politburo that met here under the chairmanship of Naidu expressed grief over the Pulwama attack and observed a two-minute silence in memory of the CRPF jawans killed.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed Thursday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir when a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 100 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district.