After a suicide bomber attack in Pulwama claimed the lives of at least 39 CRPF jawans on 14 February, photos purportedly of the slain jawans went viral.
Among these photos were the pictures of a CRPF jawan from Assam, who was mistaken for another man with the same surname.
Mizing Basumatary's photo was shared by several handles on Twitter as that of Maneshwar Basumatary, who was killed in the attack.
However, Mizing is very much alive and took to Facebook to dispel rumours that he had been killed in the terror attack.
“This is fake news... I am requesting you all... please don't share this fake message,” he appealed in his post. The photos used by the handles can be accessed from Mizing’s Facebook profile.
The jawan who was killed was Maneshwar Basumatary from the CRPF’s 98th batallion. 48-year-old Maneshwar hailed from Kalbari village in Assam's Baksa district.
He was inducted into the CRPF in 1994, and was serving as a head constable in his batallion. Survived by his wife, son and daughter, Maneshwar had rejoined duty after a one-month leave on 4 February.
Speaking to a local daily, Maneshwar's nephew appealed to PM Narendra Modi to take action against the JeM for the attack.
“The central government has said earlier that these problems would be solved but till date no such problems have been solved. I requested the government to take necessary steps against this attack so that no more jawans have to lose their lives anymore.”
A CRPF convoy of 78 vehicles, carrying 2,547 CRPF personnel, was attacked at 2:03 pm at Awantipora in J&K’s Pulwama district on Thursday. A suicide bomber, allegedly driving a Mahindra Scorpio carrying more than 350 kg of explosives, rammed into the convoy.
A CRPF official told The Quint that the moment the blast took place, terrorists opened fired on the convoy. Two buses were the worst hit, one of them was carrying 39 personnel.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, meanwhile, has said that a “strong reply” will be given to “Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad” that has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan, in response, said that it “strongly rejected any insinuation” by the Indian media and government that sought to link the attack to them “without investigation.”
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