NEW DELHI: On Friday, Ministers, politicians and dignitaries arrived in huge numbers at Delhi's Palam air force area to pay homage to the 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who lost their lives in the terror attack in Pulwama. Among those who gathered was Congress president Rahul Gandhi who also laid a wreath at the coffins of the martyrs.

However, the Gandhi scion is facing ire after he was caught on camera using his mobile phone while at the hangar where the bodies had been kept. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are among the politicians who can be seen in the video. Gandhi, who stood alongside Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had asked the General to give way to him for paying his respects.

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Decorated with white floral arrangements, 40 coffins wrapped in tricolour were neatly arranged in the hanger. Along with senior CRPF officials, several politicians laid wreaths one by one in a solemn ceremony. After the dignitaries paid their homage, the PM dressed in white with a dark-coloured shawl, arrived in the hanger and went straight to the podium where the coffins were kept. He stood in silence for a few moments, before taking a round of the coffins with his hands folded and head bowed.

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. 

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