Govt should come out with white paper on Pulwama attack: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday demanded that the government should come out with a white paper on the Pulwama attack providing answers to questions such as what were the intelligence failures and why troops were denied aircraftDays after former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satypal Maliks allegations over the 2019 Pulwama attack the Congress held a press conference here by Col retd Rohit Chaudhry and Wing Commander retd Anuma Acharya both associated with the party and posed a series of questions to the government on the attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killedThere has been no reaction from the government since Maliks interview to a news portal was released while the BJP has said that there were serious questions about his credibility and cited various statements made by him in recent yearsThe BJP had cited Maliks past remarks including the one that mocked former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as a political juvenile and slammed him as the disgraced governor of Jammu and KashmirCongress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the party did not make any political statement over an incident like Pulwama in 2019 but had to raise this issue as concerns have been expressed by former army chief Gen retd Shankar Roychowdhury in an interviewChaudhry and Acharya the two armed forces veterans said the defence fraternity and the entire nation share the concerns of Malik and Gen RoychowdhuryThey posed questions to the prime minister on the basis of the assertions by the former army chiefWhy were 2500 CRPF soldiers not allowed to travel by air despite their request they askedThey also asked as to why were intelligence inputs between January 2 2019 and February 13 2019 warning of a terrorist attack ignoredHow did the militants procure around 300 kg of explosives How could this huge quantity remain undetected despite heavy security presence in South Kashmir especially the PulwamaAnantnagAvantipora belt Chaudhry saidAlso readMumbai 12 including employees of insurance firm booked by MIDC police for cheating customersFour years after the attack how far has the inquiry progressed Why is there a delay in completing the inquiry and letting the nation know its findings they saidAt the Congress presser the two army veterans said that in previous terror attacks such as the Mumbai attacks in 2011 and the Pathankot attack in 2016 inquiries were held and findings made public This was essential to establish the truth fix responsibility and strengthen Indias national securityIn Pulwama too these serious questions must be addressed they saidTherefore we demand that the government of India publish a white paper on the Pulwama attacks describing how the attacks took place what were the intelligence failures why troops were denied aircraft what security lapses occurred and the role of CRPF Ministry of Home Affairs Ministry of Defence National Security Advisor and the Prime Ministers Office the veterans saidThe Congress had on Saturday demanded that the Centre reveal the outcome of the probe into the Pulwama incident and asked why the paramilitary personnel were denied aircraft and made to commute by road despite the terror attack threatBJPs IT department head Amit Malviya had on Saturday tweeted an old remark of Malik who has become a strong critic of the government in recent years praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the best PM for Jammu and Kashmir to hit out at his UturnThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever