BJP chief Amit Shah cancels Odisha visit after Pulwama attack

Sambalpur: BJP national President Amit Shah's visit to Odisha today has been cancelled in the wake of terror attack in Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday which claimed lives of as many as 45 CRPF jawans.

According to sources, all political programmes of the BJP president scheduled for today have been cancelled following the terror attack.

Shah was scheduled to attend party's 'karyakarta samabesh' in Sambalpur today during which he would have chaired a meeting with booth level organisers of four Lok Sabha constituencies of Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Bargarh and Sundargarh.

Not only Shah, all political programmes of BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been cancelled. However, sources said official functions of the government would, however, be held as per schedule.

In the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted in 1989, a suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district, killing at least 43 troopers.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the horror and released a video clip of the suicide bomber, a 'commander' identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, which it claimed was shot before the young man carried out the strike in Lethpora, about 30 km from Srinagar.