Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said the previous day's attack on Central Reserve Police Force personnel was an attempt at “subverting peace” and the state’s efforts towards development. “The only purpose of such blood-spattered acts of violence is to add to the tragedies and miseries of the people and subvert the government’s efforts aimed at bringing permanent peace and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir,” she said, according to Firstpost.

Mehbooba and other leaders paid homage to the eight CRPF jawans who were killed on Saturday after alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives opened fire at a convoy in Pampore, on the on the outskirts of Srinagar. Twi militants were killed in the gunfight, in which 24 other jawans were injured and taken to a hospital. While 21 of them are believed to be in critical condition, doctors declared that five of them were brought dead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir NN Vohra and former chief minister Omar Abdullah were among others who expressed their condolences. Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs Pradip Bhattacharya had demanded that the National Investigation Agency look into the attack. “I strongly condemn this attack and I demand that there should be a thorough investigation by the NIA into the case,” he said.

This is the second such attack on a convoy of security personnel within three weeks. On 3 June, three Border Security Force jawans were killed and five others were critically injured after militants opened fire at their bus near Bijbehara, in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway. Hours later, two police officers were gunned down by terrorists in an attack at a police checkpost in Anantnag.