General (Retired) Shankar Roychowdhury, former chief of the Indian Army, has stated that the primary responsibility for the Pulwama attack rested on the government headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval. Malik also claimed that when he told Modi about the failures that led to the attack, the latter told him to “stay quiet”. He said that NSA Doval also told him to remain silent.
In February 2019, a car laden with explosives rammed into a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy, resulting in the deaths of 40 jawans. The incident was one of the deadliest attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in recent years. The suicide attack was carried out by a local youth, Adil Muhammad Dar of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
India alleged that Pakistan was behind the attacks and carried out a cross-border airstrike in Balakot, KP, Pakistan two weeks later. Regardless of the Indian claims, no loss of life or material could be confirmed by neutral observors. Pakistan retaliated in kind and launched counter airstrikes in Indian Occupied Kashmir and an Indian MiG-21 Bison was downed by the Pakistan Air Force, following which its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was taken prisoner. This led to the 2019 India-Pakistan standoff.
Now Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s recent revelations in an interview with The Wire have reignited discussions about the government’s role in the incident. Malik claimed that the attack was the result of government incompetence and negligence. He stated that the CRPF had requested aircraft, but their request was not granted by the Union Home Ministry, then headed by Rajnath Singh. Additionally, he stated that when he informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the failures that led to the attack, Modi told him to “stay quiet,” and NSA Doval also told him to remain silent.
General (Retired) Shankar Roychowdhury, former chief of the Indian Army who served as the 18th Chief of Army Staff, supported Malik’s claims and stated that the primary responsibility for the deaths rested on the government headed by the Prime Minister, who was advised by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Ajit Doval. According to General Roychowdhury, the convoy of 78 vehicles carrying over 2,500 personnel should not have taken a highway so close to the Pakistan border and instead should have been flown.
General Roychowdhury highlighted the vulnerabilities in the area where the attack occurred. He stated that the road that goes along Samba in Jammu is always vulnerable owing to infiltration that happens by tunnelling. He added that the more traffic there is along the interstate highway, the more risks are exposed, as the border is not very far away from Pakistan all throughout. He also agreed with Malik’s statement that the terror attack was the result of an intelligence failure. Malik had pointed out that while the RDX, an explosive substance used in the attack, came from Pakistan, the fact that a car was “roaming around” in Kashmir for days before the attack and could not be located was an intelligence and security system failure.