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Pakistan on Sunday demanded that India be held accountable for the threat it had caused to regional peace in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack after former governor of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) Satya Pal Malik alleged that the Indian prime minister had deliberately ignored security lapses.
In an interview with The Wire, Malik alleged that Indian P.M. Narendra Modi had silenced him on the security lapses that had resulted in the 2019 Pulwama attack. Claiming that Modi’s sole purpose was to secure political benefit by blaming Pakistan, he said the premier was “ill-informed” and “ignorant” about Kashmir and described the abrogation of the region’s special constitutional status as a “mistake” that should be reversed.
Detailing the security lapses he was referring to, Malik claimed a request for airlifting the soldiers had been refused by the home ministry, while a clearance operation prior to the convoy’s departure had been inefficient. “I told the prime minister that it happened due to our mistake. Had we given the aircraft, it wouldn’t have happened, so he told me to keep quiet,” he said, adding that he had “sensed” that the goal was to divert all blame on Pakistan.
In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Malik’s revelations of the time when he was governor had “once again” vindicated Islamabad’s stance on the Pulwama attack. “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,” it said, adding that it hoped the international community would now take cognizance of the latest revelations and see through India’s propaganda campaign against Pakistan, which it described as being driven by selfish political considerations and based on lies and deceit.
“It is time India be held accountable for the actions that imperiled regional peace in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack,” read the statement, adding that Islamabad would continue to counter Delhi’s false narrative and act firmly and responsibly in the face of different provocations.
On Feb. 14, 2019, 40 Indian soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed and dozens more injured after an improvised explosive device detonated while the convoy was traveling on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Pulwama district. Delhi had blamed the attack on Islamabad, triggering a face-off between Pakistan and India that had brought the neighboring countries to the brink of war.