Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik, speaking to NDTV anchor Ravish Kumar on his show, responded to questions about the Pulwama terrorist attack where a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying CRPF personnel leading to the death of about 40 jawans.
Malik, addressing this critical failure of security and intelligence, said that despite the intel, it is the administration’s fault that an explosive-laden vehicle managed to make its way to the highway and it would now be their efforts to ascertain who is responsible for this failure.
Ravish Kumar, however, countered that as per standard procedure, there are security checks at regular intervals to prevent situations such as these. In which case, when more than 2,500 CRPF jawans were being transported, a failure like this could not have been an ordinary one.
To this Malik responded, “If the standard procedure is to be followed, 2,500 men should not be transported at one go at all.” He added that such a large convoy is often discouraged because, in case of an IED attack, the surest way to escape safely is vehicles speeding away. Besides, he added that if security checkpoints were in place, the car would have definitely been caught.
Also read: Pulwama Terrorist Attack: Why Isn’t The Media Asking The Right Questions?