Pulwama fiasco: kin of slain soldiers demand probe after Malik’s revelations
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New Delhi: The family members of the soldiers who were killed in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack have demanded an investigation into the deadly incident after the explosive revelations by former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik recently came to light.
Malik during an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval asked him to remain silent when as the Jammu &Kashmir governor he pointed out significant failures on the part of the government agencies to prevent the horrifying Pulwama terrorist attack.
The Pulwama attack occurred on February 14, 2019, when a convoy of vehicles carrying soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethapora in the Pulwama district killing forty jawans and injuring several others.
Malik had said that the Pulwama terror attack happened only because of the Modi government’s “incompetence”. The army had requested to transport soldiers in aircraft which the Union government refused.
Malik who was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir, which at that time was under the President’s Rule, also said that he was asked to remain “silent” when he told Modi that his government’s “incompetence” cost the lives.
Parashuram, father of one of the slain soldiers Bhagirath told The Wire that the Pulwama attack was a “political stunt orchestrated by the government”, as quoted by The Wire.
“I am 100% confident that it’s all about being in power, and the Modi government has done this to get the chair [to get re-elected],” Parashuram said. “Where was the prime minister at that time? Was he sleeping?” asks an angry Parashuram.
General (Retired) Shankar Roychowdhury, a former chief of the Indian Army, had also recently blamed the Modi government for the deaths of soldiers.
Both the prime minister and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval must take responsibility for the intelligence failure that led to the incident, he told The Telegraph.
After Malik’s interview with Karan Thapar, the opposition has staged a protest in Pune, demanding a white paper on the Pulwama fiasco from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP government is yet to respond to Malik’s revelations.
