Pakistan has sought an “answer” from New Delhi over claims made by Satyapal Malik, an ex-governor of Jammu and Kashmir, who said that he was instructed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “stay quiet” on Indian intelligence and other lapses in the wake of the Pulwama terrorist attack in February 2019.
He said he sensed at the time that the “entire onus was being put on Pakistan so I have to keep quiet.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that Malik’s charges against the Modi government “vindicated” Islamabad’s stance on the Pulwama attack. Islamabad has so far denied any involvement in the attack.
The ministry argued that Malik’s claims demonstrated that the Indian leadership “habitually used the bogey of terrorism from Pakistan to advance its sham victimhood narrative and the Hindutva agenda for domestic political gains.”
“We hope that the international community would take cognizance of the latest revelations and see through India’s propaganda campaign against Pakistan driven by selfish political considerations and based on lies and deceit,” the ministry said.
What Did Malik Say?
Malik claimed that he spoke to Prime Minister Modi over the phone on the evening of February 14, 2019. During the call, he reportedly told Modi that the attack wouldn’t have happened had Indian authorities agreed to provide planes to transport the CRPF personnel.
According to Malik and previous reports, the CRPF had requested that the authorities transport the security personnel through air instead of the road route, owing to security compulsions.
“I told him that this happened because of our mistake,” Malik said.
Malik also said that the car used in the suicide car had nearly 300 kilograms of RDX and had moved around the region for 10-12 days without being intercepted.
“No one knew. No one intercepted… So, we have a security lax, roads not being manned and then an intelligence lax as well. The incompetence is that of the Indian system,” Malik said.
However, Malik clearly mentioned that sourcing such a large quantity of explosive material wouldn’t have been possible without help from Pakistan.
Malik suggested that withholding these lapses from the public might have been a political strategy ahead of the federal election, which took place in May 2019. Modi’s BJP won the election in a landslide.
“I can just say that instead of going to the root cause or the starting point of that matter, or maybe if we also went to the start and completely investigated everything, we might have to change things for our own personal benefit," he added.
Malik’s allegations have prompted a political attack from India’s main opposition Congress party, who has asked the Modi government to “come clean” on these claims.
Fallout of Pulwama Terrorist Attack
Less than two weeks after the Pulwama attack, Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets crossed over into Pakistan to carry out strikes on terrorist camps in Balakot in Khyber-Paktunkhwa province.
The next day, Pakistani F-16 jets crossed over into India in apparent retaliation to the previous day’s strikes.
India scrambled MIG-21 jets to intercept the F-16s, leading to an aerial dogfight which saw the Russian-built Indian plane downing the US-built aircraft.
After the dogfight, the India MIG-21 strayed into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and crashed there.
The Indian pilot was detained by Pakistani forces, but handed back to New Delhi a few days later.
*Terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.