Pulwama attack revelations vindicate Pakistan: FO

Islamabad: The latest revelations made by Satya Pal Malik, the so-called former governor of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), have once again vindicated Pakistan’s stance on the Pulwama attack of February 2019.

“His disclosures demonstrate how the Indian leadership has habitually used the bogey of terrorism from Pakistan to advance its sham victimhood narrative and the Hindutva agenda, clearly for domestic political gains,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday.

The spokesperson further said that Pakistan hoped 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.

“India must answer the questions raised in the latest revelations. It is time India be held accountable for the actions that imperiled regional peace in the aftermath of Pulwama attack,” it was stressed.

Pakistan, the spokesperson said, for its part, would continue to counter India’s false narrative, and act firmly and responsibly in the face of different provocations.

In an interview with Karan Thapar for ‘The Wire’, Satya Pal Malik, the Indian government’s former so-called governor of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), painted a damning picture of the PM Modi and his closest advisors.

Malik, the last so-called governor of IIOJK before it was divided and reduced to Union territory status, said “Mein safely keh sakta hoon Prime Minister ko corruption se bahut nafrat nahin hain” (‘I can safely say the PM has no real problem with corruption’).

Malik, who was governor during the Pulwama terrorist attack of February 2019 and the scrapping of Article 370 in August that year, said the prime minister 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.

During the interview, Malik revealed that the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama was a result of “incompetence” by the Indian system and specifically the CRPF and the home ministry.

At the time, Rajnath Singh was home minister. Malik gave extensive details of how the CRPF had asked for aircraft to transport its jawans but was refused by the Union home ministry.

He also spoke of how sanitisation of the route was not done effectively. More importantly, he said all of these lapses were raised by him directly when Modi called him from outside Corbett Park shortly after the Pulwama attack.

He said the prime minister told him to keep quiet about this and not tell anyone.

Separately, Malik said that NSA Ajit Doval also told him to keep quiet and not talk about it. Malik said he immediately realised that the intention was to put the blame on Pakistan and derive electoral benefit for the government and the BJP.

Malik also 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 J&K, he was approached by the BJP-RSS leader Ram Madhav to clear a hydro-electric scheme and a Reliance insurance scheme.

Madhav came to see him at seven in the morning to try and get him to change his mind. Malik said at the time people were telling him that he could get Rs 300 crores for clearing both schemes.

Malik said the prime minister was “ignorant” and “ill-informed” about Kashmir.

He said removing IIOJK’s statehood was a mistake and it should be restored immediately.

Speaking about Modi, Malik said “the prime minister is not at all concerned about corruption.”

He said he was removed as governor of Goa in August 2020 and sent to Meghalaya because he had brought to the prime minister’s attention several instances of corruption which the government chose to ignore rather than tackle.

He alleged that the people around the prime minister were indulging in corruption and often use the PMO’s name.

Malik said he had brought all of this to Modi’s attention but added that the PM did not seem to care.

That’s when he said, “Mein safely keh sakta hoon Prime Minister ko corruption se bahut nafrat nahin hain”.