Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday questioned whether the 2019 Pulwama militant attack had been staged by the Narendra Modi government with the aim of winning the Lok Sabha polls.
His remarks come after former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik claimed on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him not to speak about lapses that led to the attack in 2019.
“People were aware at the time that some India-Pakistan incident will be manufactured for political gain,” Raut said, The Hindu reported.
“Was the terror attack staged with the aim of winning elections? Was there a plot to get 40 jawans killed for political gain? We had repeatedly tried to ask such questions at the time but were silenced by the ruling party and branded as ‘traitors’,” he said.
The former governor told The Wire: “They only needed five aircraft, but these were not provided to them.. I told the prime minister on the same evening that this [the attack] took place because of our mistake. If we had provided them with aircraft, this would not have happened. But he asked me to stay silent about it.”
Malik said he was also advised by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to refrain from discussing the issue.
Citing the interview, the Congress said that the Pulwama attack took place because of the Modi government’s mistake. “You [Modi] should have taken action on this mistake, but you suppressed this fact and set about trying to save your image,” it said. “The country is stunned to hear Satya Pal Malik’s words.”
The Rashtriya Janata Dal also said on Saturday that the “truth of Pulwama attack” was coming to light.
“The real face of fake and gimmicky Sanghi nationalists is coming to the fore. Everyone is understanding why Pulwama happened before the Lok Sabha elections,” the party wrote on its official Twitter handle.
