New Delhi: Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday issued a statement claiming that former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik’s remarks on the 2019 Pulwama terror attack “vindicated” Islamabad, but remained silent on the BJP leader asserting that the RDX source was definitely Pakistani.
On Saturday, Malik had said in an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire that the Indian prime minister had told him to keep quiet when he raised the lapses in security in their first phone conversation after the Pulwama attack. He also said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval too asked him to keep quiet on the issue.
Malik claimed that he immediately realised that the intention was to derive electoral benefit for the government and BJP by putting the blame on Pakistan.
According to a statement issued by Pakistan’s foreign office, the remarks by Malik “demonstrate how the Indian leadership has habitually used the bogey of terrorism from Pakistan to advance its sham victimhood narrative and the Hindutva agenda, clearly for domestic political gains”.
“The latest revelations made by Mr Satya Pal Malik, the so-called former Governor of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), have once again vindicated Pakistan’s stance on the Pulwama Attack of February 2019,” it said.
However, the Pakistani statement is silent on Malik naming Pakistan as the source of the RDX explosives for the car bomb that killed 40 CRPF personnel. See here:
Karan Thapar: You said another really important thing, 3-4 minutes back that you realised when the PM and Mr Doval asked you to keep quiet on the matter, that the blame would be shifted to Pakistan because they felt it would help their election. Was Pakistan, or Pakistani militants or Pakistani tanzeems actually responsible or did we make that up?
Satya Pal Malik: The amount of explosives provided to that fellow could not be done internally. It was Pakistan, only, that arranged it. But the failure was on our part, mine too, that we could not locate that a car in that area was roaming around carrying so much explosive material. [Transcript]
Pakistan also stated that it will “continue to counter India’s false narrative, and act firmly and responsibly in the face of different provocations”.
After the Pulwama attack, India conducted air strikes across the border in Balakot against terror camps. A day later, Pakistan conducted an airstrike inside Indian territory. In the subsequent dogfight, an Indian fighter plane was shot down and a pilot was taken prisoner by Pakistan. India also suffered six other fatalities when an Indian Mi7 helicopter was shot down by friendly fire.