Pulwama terror attack 'indigenous thing' , why blame Pakistan, asks Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has done it again. He has once again tried to walk away from taking the responsibility of the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14, 2019. In an interaction in Washington during his ongoing US state visit, Khan termed the Pulwama terror attack as an ‘indigenous thing’. He went on to say that Islamabad has nothing to do with it as the attack was carried out by ‘Kashmiri boy radicalised by the brutalities of the Indian forces.’ He also added that Jaish-e-Mohammad, which took responsibility of the terror attack also operated in India. Khan said that in view of this, ‘why should Pakistan be blamed for the terror attack.’

“It was a Kashmiri boy radicalized by the brutality the security forces. He blew himself up. But because this group claimed responsibility, which was in India as well, Jaish-e-Mohammad is operating in India — but Pakistan suddenly came in the limelight,” Khan said. Month after the terror attack, Pakistan had shared some information with India on March 27. Pakistan's statement read: "The Government of Pakistan has shared preliminary findings with the Government of India after examining the Indian report on Pulwama incident." "The Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Foreign Secretary and the findings on the Pulwama incident were shared with him." "Pakistan has acted with a high sense of responsibility and extended full cooperation. We do so in the interest of regional peace and security. We have sought further information/evidence from India to take the process forward," it had said.

More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir on the fateful day.

Recently, on June 26, the Narendra Modi government 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.