Nation Needs the Answers to the Questions NaMo Asked His Predecessor
The horrendous incident of 14th February, killing 44 CRPF personnel on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Pulwama area has been widely denounced as ‘terror attack by Pakistani actors’ and attracted vast condemnation. Several organisations and individuals have also raised the demand for comprehensive free and fair enquiry in the whole episode, especially in the wake of equally high-pitched divisive campaign to politically en-cash the sympathy wave for the families of slain personnel without ensuring welfare of the bereaved families and pushing under the carpet main issues of people like employment, education, torment of farmers, security of borders, and deteriorated relations with the neighbouring countries, etc.
The blast occurred when a car coming from the wrong side hit a bus of the CRPF convoy. The explosion was so strong that it reduced two vehicles to the mangled heap of metal and was heard in some parts of Srinagar, 20 kms. away from the site of the blast. It left human remains and the wreckages of the vehicles scattered around 200 metres. “The bodies are dismembered and mutilated, making it difficult for doctors to give the exact number of casualties,” stated an official release.
Jammu and Kashmir has a history of fatal terror attacks targeting our security establishments. It was immediately judged as a “terrorists attack by Pakistanis.” The Government and the media relied upon the videos surfaced a little later on social media and said JeM has owned the responsibility of the heinous crime. Pakistan however has dismissed it and sought proof but JeM did not contradict.
The videos, as usual, contains false propaganda material. It claimed that the car was loaded with 350 Kg of explosives. But after examining the pieces of Jeri-cane, used to make the bomb, NIA sources estimated just 30 Kg of RDX. The earlier reports said a Scorpio car was involved. But NIA investigation suggested it was a Maruti Eeco of 2010-11 make. (Indian Express online 23 February)
The investigators are yet to ascertain (a) the route of the car movement to the highway, (b) its owner, and (c) source of the explosives etc. which are crucial to ascertain hard facts. In the era of fake-news industry, the videos cannot be relied upon as authentic. The claim about the quantity of explosives made in the clips has already been found exaggerated. However, the probability of involvement of terror groups from the other side cannot be ruled out.
Intelligence Failure
The Governor of J&K, Mr. Satya Pal Malik acknowledged a day after the incident that it was partly the result of an intelligence failure, especially due to the fact that security forces could not detect the loading and movement of the explosive-laden vehicle.
He said: “We could not detect or check the vehicle full of explosives moving on the highway. We must accept that we are at fault also.”
The source of the explosives is also yet to be ascertained, which may be within our boundaries. As Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda pointed out, “It is not possible to bring such massive amounts of explosives by infiltrating the border.”
The illustrious former army officer, Lt. Gen. Hooda served the area for long. He was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC) of the Northern Command during the ‘surgical strike’ in September 2016. Gen. Hooda added, “The material may have been taken from stashes of explosives being used to blast a mountainside to broaden the highway to Jammu, the same road where the attack occurred.” (The New York Times)
Local Involvement
Due consideration should also be given to the possibility of local involvement. In the earlier cases of terror attacks, like Samjhauta Express (2007) and Malegaon blasts (2008), the Maharashtra ATS under Hemant Karkare had found that RDX used for blasts was supplied by a serving Army officer Lt Col Shrikant Purohit. He had links with the right-wing outfit ‘Abhinav Bharat’ and the attacks were carried out by Hindutva actors for political reasons. The officer has not yet been cleared of the charges. Keeping in view the upcoming general elections, the angle of political conspiracy should not be ignored. A political party has raised a huge divisive storm to milk it for elections. The Kashmiris are being targeted and the Governor of the NE State of Mizoram, Mr. Tathagata Roy has asked fellow countrymen to boycott Kashmiris. He tweeted, “Don’t visit Kashmir… Don’t buy articles from Kashmir emporia or Kashmiri tradesman who come every winter. Boycott everything from Kashmir.” And a leader of Gujarat BJP Bharat Pandya has exhorted workers to turn the “nationalistic wave in the country” in the wake of Pulwama attack that left 44 CRPF men dead into “votes for BJP”. Speeches of the P.M. also indicate the same.
An Accident?
This may also be a case of an accident. The driver of SUV may be carrying stolen/ illegally procured explosives and panicked after seeing CRPF convoy and accidentally hit the bus causing the blast. These all are the points which should be investigated.
Huge Failure
In any case, if it is a JeM handiwork and the explosive was smuggled in by infiltrators then it is an utter failure of our Government under Mr. Narendra Modi. He needs to answer the same set of the questions he had asked his predecessor Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2012. Addressing a Mumbai rally on May 25, 2012 during BJP National Executive Meet, Mr. Modi raised five questions:
- It is known that the arms, ammunition and explosives are ferried from across the border clandestinely, and reach the terrorists or Naxals. Why is New Delhi so impotent in stopping it? Isn’t the Government in control of the army, the BSF and other agencies? Isn’t it in control of the international border? Then what explains its failure to stop infiltration and supply of arms and ammunition from across the border?
- The terrorists infiltrate our borders and run away after committing strike. The borders are under the government vigil. You control BSF, Army and Navy. Then why you do not apprehend them. He has no answer.
- Isn’t it true that the terrorists use hawala/banking channels in their transactions? And yet the central government is unable to detect these transactions and apprehend the terrorists. Why? People need an answer. Is the Prime Minister so incompetent that he cannot even ensure this much?
- I put the fourth question. Isn’t the Government in control of all communication? Isn’t it true that it can intercept any call or email? Why then has it repeatedly failed to intercept the communication by terrorists?
- I would also like to pose a fifth question to the PM, Modi said, and ask what has he done to bring back the terrorists who are sitting in foreign countries and masterminding terror attacks here?
More Questions
Pulwama attack is the utter failure of the regime and has prompted more questions about how tenable Mr. Modi’s hard-line strategy in Kashmir is. The Modi Government has deployed about 250,000 armed forces in the valley, (making it most militarised zone of the globe) and given them free-hand to ‘eliminate’ every terror-suspect. Despite this there has been 177 per cent rise in terrorist incidents between 2014 and 2018. (MoS HG Ahir in Lok Sabha on 5.2.19) In the same period, the state saw a rise of 106% in the death toll of security personnel in terror attacks. (South Asia Terrorism Portal)
The rate of new recruitment of insurgents has also alarmingly increased. “They aren’t joining the militants from Islamic seminaries, but they’re fresh graduates from engineering schools, or they hold jobs. For an entire generation to be so angry with India says Delhi’s policy has been a failure,” Professor Jacob said.
He added that the central government had not tried to engage local people or find meaningful alliances with local politicians. Last year, Mr. Modi’s governing party ended its alliance with a powerful regional party, leaving the state under the central government’s control. (The New York Times)
It also looks odd that the ‘intelligence agencies’ failed to smell the conspiracy before it was executed; however, within minutes the “mastermind” was identified, pictures published, and the person “eliminated” within hours. It is extremely intriguing that efforts are not made to apprehend such suspects/masterminds and extract from them the details of the conspiracy.
Isolating Pakistan
After the incident, the Modi regime has once again pressed the diplomatic button to isolate Pakistan globally. Keeping in view the geographical position of Pakistan and its influence on Afghanistan, the support of China, USA, KSA, and other Gulf countries is being ensured and close proximity with Turkey is being explored. The outcome of this effort looks set as had been in the past. We however see that even the USA failed to isolate its undesired regimes of Iran, Syria and North Korea. For India, the only way is to return to the Vajpayee era doctrine and resort to talks without preconditions.
Some quotes
At the end, we present some quotes from the statements of four BJP leaders made during the pre-Modi regime. Let’s see how easy it is to speak hyperbolically and how difficult is to accomplish:
“Killings of five security personnel! The nation and the army are pushed to be ashamed because we have a week and undecisive Government.” Ms. Sushma Swaraj (6.8.2013)
“Central Government should tell the nation how many more security persons will be required to be killed?” Ravi Shankar Prasad (6.8.2013)
“When Modi will become Prime Minister, the Pakistani intruders will not dare to cross over the boundary line.” Amit Shah, National President of BJP (23.04.14)
“If we had Modi as P.M. today, we would have reached Lahore till now.” Giri Raj Singh (8.8.2013)
[The writer is a Civil Rights activist and a Delhi based journalist; [email protected]]