PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi and other leaders pay tributes to CRPF jawans in Delhi

The mortal remains were received by Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the Palam technical area of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Decorated with white floral arrangements, 40 coffins wrapped in tricolour were neatly arranged in the hanger, where senior officials of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid wreaths one by one in a solemn ceremony, officials said.

Those present included senior ministers of the Cabinet, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the chiefs of the three services -- Army, Air Force and Navy -- and senior cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also paid their homage to the slain CRPF personnel, they added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal paid their last respects to the CRPF personnel at the airport. Modi placed a wreath on a platform placed before the coffins carrying the mortal remains of the troopers.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal extended full support to the central government and armed forces for taking appropriate action they deemed fit in response to the terror attack.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was standing alongside Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, politely asked the general to give way to him for paying his respects. Gandhi paid tributes to the CRPF jawans killed in the Pulwama terror attack at the Palam airport here after their mortal remains were brought from Srinagar.

Gandhi paid homage to the slain security personnel by laying a wreath where the caskets carrying the mortal remains of the soldiers were kept at the Palam technical area here.

The Congress chief paid his tributes after the three armed forces chiefs' homage to them.

Gandhi described the assault as an attack on India's soul and said his party as well as the entire opposition was fully supportive of the government and the security forces.

No amount of hatred or anger can do anything to the love and affection that India is built on, Gandhi said at a press conference.

There is going to be no other discussion from the Congress party over the next couple of days other than the fact that "our most beloved people have been killed, their families need us, and we are going to stand with them," he asserted at the press conference.

After the dignitaries paid their homage, the prime minister, dressed in white with a dark-coloured shawl, arrived in the hanger and went straight to the podium where the coffins were kept, officials said.

He stood in silence for a few moments, before taking a round of the coffins and bowing his head down with folded hands.

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