Indian Government staged Pulwama to win votes?
After hearing ground-breaking revelations of former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Satyapal Malik, in his recent interview to the Wire, one may ask that has politics in India stooped low to an extent, where sitting government is ready to take lives of its precious soldiers for election benefits? Pulwama attack was a horrific incident happened on 14 February 2019 in which 40 soldiers were killed as their vehicle was hit by a car filled with nearly 300 kilos of explosives. Pulwama attack was blamed on Pakistan. And ironically, in April 2019 general election of India was due.
If Pakistan was to launch an attack on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of India, then why would it choose the year of election? Any incident of such sort can clearly benefit the ruling party of that time. What could Pakistan have gained? In response to Pulwama, on February 26, 2019 India launched an aerial attack in Balakot, Pakistan. It was again a false flag operation in which the Indian aircraft claimed to attack a madressa. Later, it was revealed by satellite images that no madressa existed. Some trees and plants were damaged in Pakistan. But this attack was blatantly shown by Indian media as a befitting response to Pulwama attack. The subsequent events led to worsening of relations between India and Pakistan and eventually Modi won elections for the second time.
Satyapal Malik has made pertinent revelations about Pulwama. He said in his interview to Karan Thapar, that the Indian Home Ministry denied the use of helicopters for the transportation of soldiers. Karan Thapar added during the interview that there were intelligence reports of an attack from January, 2019 onwards then why Home Ministry denied the use of helicopters. It is ironic to note that CRPF comes under the authority of the Home Ministry.
Mr. Malik also told that the car with explosives was roaming around in the streets of Kashmir from nearly 10 to 12 days. The question arises that how could he know that such a car was roaming around for that many days? Is his assertion coming after witnessing CCTV footage of the site of Pulwama attack, or he had received reports earlier? If he received reports earlier then why he didn’t do anything about it. And how could such a car cross multiple security posts in the area?
Secondly, he said that eight to ten linking roads in the journey of CRFP vehicle were unmanned. Why such lapse? In a region where unrest is constant since independence of India, why roads were not guarded? Does it mean that they were intentionally left unguarded? Mr Malik also talked about Mr. Modi’s response on the incident. Mr. Modi, after inquiring Mr. Satyapal about the incident, just advised him to be silent. Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India also advised him to be silent. Why? Instead of being shocked, why Mr. Modi preferred silence?
Was it the reason that Pakistan was to be blamed afterwards? Does it imply that Mr. Modi had it in his mind even before the incident, which is why instead of expressing shock, he advised Mr. Satyapal to remain silent. Mr Malik alleged that Pakistan provided the explosives. The question is that how a car full of explosives could enter the territory of Kashmir? Indian media constantly report of Pakistan’s ceasefire violations. If India is aware of a fire coming from Pakistan how it could be so ignorant about explosives coming from Pakistan? India constructed a fence row with barbed wires with concertina coil to curtail infiltration in 2004. Then how such a huge amount of explosives can be transported to Kashmir?
First, the assertion that Pakistan transported the explosives is ambiguous or it would be appropriate to say, illogical. Second, the revelations made by Satyapal Malik clearly indicate that Indian government was complacent in the crime. The home ministry is still silent. There is no one to answer the question that why those particular roads of travel where CRPF vehicles were routed, were left unmanned. The region of Jammu and Kashmir is heavily militarized. Nearly 600,000 troops are stationed in the region. The fact that in presence of a huge number of troops, leaving 8-10 link roads unguarded, raises suspicion.
During the interview, there was a mention of Dravinder Singh’s (former J and K police officer, dismissed in 2021) role in this tragedy. Mr. Satayapal clearly ruled out his role. However, it is also a fact that Dravinder Singh was also named by Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was hanged for being involved in Parliament attack of 2001. Guru claimed in his testimony that was published by the India Today on January 16, 2020 that he was used by Dravinder Singh as a scape-goat, while he was totally ignorant of an attack being planned on the parliament. The parliament attack was also blamed on Pakistan. Many questions emerge out of these revelations made by Mr. Satyapal Malik. Is it a crafted strategy of India to first launch an attack on its very own territory and then blame Pakistan for that? Pulwama attack was one of such attacks.
Relatives of slain soldiers are calling for a probe on this incident. Pracharum, one of the fathers of a soldier was quoted by the Wire that he is 100% confident that it’s all about being in power, and the Modi government has done this to get re-elected. The former chief of Indian Army (Retired) Shankar Roychowdhury also blamed the Modi government for this incident. The Indo Pak rivalry is now being used for political gains in India. It is about time that sane voices in India must gather and assert themselves to establish peace between the two countries. Otherwise more precious lives will be lost in the name of Indo Pak rivalry.
—The writer is Research Analyst at Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad.
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