The Pulwama attack is one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were martyred.
Though there are many clues leading to an intelligence failure, the Home Ministry refuses to accept that Pulwama Terror Attack was not an Intel; however, there are many gripping questions still left with empty answers.
Sources say just two days before the Pulwama terror attack, the Jaish had uploaded a video from Afghanistan of a car bombing and had threatened a similar attack in Kashmir. According to sources, the Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Investigation Department had shared the video and inputs about a possible attack.
The inquiry report by Central Reserve Police Force states that although there was a general alert with regard to an IED threat, there was no particular information on leads to an attack from a car-borne suicide bomber.
According to a report in India Today, CRPF’s report also said that no such “input” was shared by any of the intelligence agencies in Kashmir Valley where the forces were forewarned to take precautionary steps.
An inside report of the CRPF pointed out several lapses by the CRPF, which includes the unusual length of the CRPF convoy as on February 14, the CRPF convoy consisted of 78 vehicles and 2,547 personnel left Jammu for Srinagar.
The report said that since February 4, no vehicles were plying on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on account of heavy snowfall and there was personnel on leave, posting, and deployment.
At about 3.33 pm on February 14, as the convoy neared milestone 272, the suicide bomber blasted off the vehicle-borne IED targeting ‘Bus Reg no HR 49F 0637 of 76 Battalion CRPF’ bombing the bus to smithereens. The bodies from the devastation were so terribly mutilated making it difficult for doctors to give the exact number of casualties.
A senior security official said that this is a major security lapse as the input about the possible attack was generated only 48 hours before. He said that the highway is highly guarded and there seems to be a lapse. Following the blast, the traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu highway came to standstill and there was a huge traffic jam and it was later restored late in the evening when the highway was cleared. Soon after the blast, security forces launched searches in the entire area.
The questions arise:
- Why did a vehicle full of explosives and RDX drive smoothly through the most militarized zone in the world? Who let it happen?
- Why did such a highly guarded highway have a lapse in security in that day, even if it was snowing or holidays as the authorities say? Do the most militarized highways in the world ever get a holiday? Security guards change but work around the clock.
- This too, why was the highway not protected especially after Intel gave a warning of an attack, authorities allowed the CRPF convoy consisted of 78 vehicles and 2,547 personnel to travel through that highway?
Today, the nation remembers our brave heroes who sacrificed their life two years ago on this day, February 14th.
Jai Hind !