JAIPUR: Rajkumar Jhajharia, a CRPF jawan from Rajasthan beat death by a whisker in the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama . Jhajharia was the driver of one of the buses in the convoy and was just two vehicles ahead of the one which was blown up by the militant in a fidayeen attack.The jawan from Sikar had been on convoy duty for last three months and says that picking up the torn bodies of his friends after the attack which left 40 dead, will be his worst memory. Five CRPF jawans from Rajasthan were martyred in the attack, which is the second highest number of casualties, topped only by UP. According to sources, many of the jawans, travelling in the convoy were reporting back from leaves.An emotional Jhajharia, recalling the gruesome attack, told TOI, “I was driving the vehicle just two buses ahead of the one which was attacked. We all heard an extremely loud explosion in spite of the fact that all windows were rolled up due to the cold weather. I am sure it was heard till kilometres away. Seconds after the terrorist vehicle collided with the bus, we took position. Firing was going on probably by other militants. Few jawans fired back as well.”According to Jhajharia who has been posted in Chattisgarh as well and witnessed many attacks, this one was the most brutal and said, “Bodies were everywhere and these were of my friends who I ate my meals with in the mess and my colleagues who I did my duties with. The images of the torn limbs will never leave me. I have faced many attacks but nothing like this. All of us picked up the bodies of the dead and those who were injured. In some cases, we found only one hand or one leg. We had to actually match them to the other body parts to identify the jawans.”“It could have been me. It was just a matter of seconds, as I had crossed the point of attack 15-20 seconds back. I called my family back after their repeated calls to reassure them that though I was alive, my friends were killed in front of my eyes,” said the 30-year-old Jhajharia who joined CRPF in 2010 and is from Sikar in Rajasthan.A serving senior officer of CRPF who is from Jaisalmer, elaborating on the probable reasons that the attack could not be prevented said, “Check-posts are there but civilians often revolt against being checked regularly. The bigger issue seems to be that there must be a lapse somewhere for the alleged terrorist to be on highway with so much of explosives. Somewhere, checking was possibly done leniently. Also, security forces should have been able to at least get a hint of such a major attack being planned.”This is not the first attack in which soldiers from the state have been killed in action. Last month, CRPF personnel Mahesh Kumar Meena, from Sikar was an operational casualty after sustaining bullet injuries during the encounter at Tral, Pulwama. Till November 2018, 130 CRPF personnel were killed by militant attacks. Rajasthan has one of the highest numbers of personnel in CRPF apart from others states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

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