Pulwama attack wasn't failure of intelligence agencies: Government tells Parliament

The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday told Parliament that the February 14 Pulwama attack, in which over 40 CRPF jawans were killed, was not a failure of intelligence agencies. Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha that whether the Pulwama attack was an inteligence failure, MoS Home Affairs Kishan Reddy, in a one word answer said - No.

When asked by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Nasir Hussain that how the bomber car joined the highway from a slip road which carried around 300 kg of explosive, Reddy said, "Jammu and Kashmir is affected by cross-border terrorism for last 3 decades. But large number of terrorists have been neutralised in past few yrs due to sustained action against terrorists.

"All agencies are working in a coordinated manner and the intelligence inputs are shared among various agencies on real time basis. The investigation by NIA into the Pulwama attack so far, has resulted in identifying the conspirators, suicide attacker and the vehicle provider,” Reddy added.

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In the biggest terror attack in nearly two decades in Jammu and Kashmir, 42 CRPF personnel were killed in Pulwama on February 14, 2019. On February 8, a week before the attack, the Jammu and Kashmir police had reportedly sent an intelligence input to the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, Army and the Air Force warning of a possible IED attack.

Headlined "extremely urgent", the letter sent on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, asked all security agencies to "sanitize areas properly before occupying your place or deployment as there are inputs that IEDs could be used".

However, the despite government’s rejection of intelligence failure in Pulwama attack, the big question that still remains is - How 300 kg of explosives used in the Pulwama attack were sources and what was the route taken to bring all explosive in Pulwama?