The recent revelations by the former governor of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Satya Pal Malik, about the 2019 Pulwama attack, have led to Pakistan’s Foreign Office demanding answers from India. In a recent interview, Malik revealed that the Indian Prime Minister had silenced him on security lapses that led to the attack to benefit from it by blaming Pakistan. Pakistan’s Foreign Office released a statement in response to the claim that the revelations have once again vindicated Pakistan’s stance on the Pulwama attack. The statement expressed hope that the international community would see through India’s propaganda campaign against Pakistan driven by selfish political considerations and based on lies and deceit.
The Pulwama attack of February 2019, in which around 40 Indian soldiers were killed and dozens injured at the Srinagar-Jammu Highway, has been dubbed as the deadliest in Indian forces in over a decade. Malik confirmed that the strategy was to politically benefit from the incident. He attributed the attack to the “incompetence and negligence of the Indian system” and CRPF. Malik revealed that the request for airlifting the soldiers had been refused by the home ministry, while the sanitisation before the transfer by road was inefficient.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office reiterated that India must answer the questions raised in the latest revelations, and it is time for India to be held accountable for the actions that imperilled regional peace in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. Islamabad will continue to counter India’s false narrative and act firmly and responsibly in the face of different provocations.
In his interview with Karan Thapar for ‘The Wire’, Malik painted a damning picture of PM Modi and his closest advisors. Malik said that Modi was “ill-informed” and “ignorant” about Kashmir and told him not to speak about the Union home ministry’s lapses, which led to the devastating terrorist attack on soldiers in Pulwama in February 2019. Malik gave extensive details of how the CRPF had asked for aircraft to transport its jawans but was refused by the Union home ministry.
Malik said that there was grave intelligence failure in the Pulwama incident because the car carrying 300 kilograms of RDX explosives had come from Pakistan but was travelling around the roads and villages of IIOJK for 10-15 days without being detected and without anyone knowing. Malik also gave details of how, when he was governor of IIOJK, he was approached by the BJP-RSS leader Ram Madhav to clear a hydroelectric scheme and a Reliance insurance scheme.
Malik’s latest revelations have raised serious questions about India’s actions in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. Pakistan’s Foreign Office has called for the international community to hold India accountable for its actions and to see through its propaganda campaign against Pakistan driven by selfish political considerations and based on lies and deceit. It is crucial for the international community to take note of these developments and to support efforts to promote regional peace and stability.
