Former BJP leader's disclosure on Pulwama attack vindicates Pakistan’s stance: FO

Pakistan has demanded answers from New Delhi regarding the recent revelations about the Pulwama attack made by former BJP leader Satya Pal Malik, who was the then governor of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Malik revealed that the Indian prime minister silenced him on the security lapses that led to the Pulwama attack in 2019 so that they could benefit from it by blaming it on Pakistan.

Responding to the claim, Foreign Office issued a statement, saying that the revelations had once again vindicated Pakistan’s stance on the Pulwama attack.

"His [Malik] disclosures 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 statement read.

The FO further expressed hope that the international community would take cognisance of the latest revelations and see through India’s propaganda campaign against Pakistan driven by selfish political considerations and based on lies and deceit.

"It is time India be held accountable for the actions that imperilled regional peace in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack," it said, adding that Islamabad will continue to counter Delhi's false narrative and act firmly and responsibly in the face of different provocations.

In an explosive interview, Malik had said that Modi warranted concealing mistakes on India's part in Pulwama's case to derive electoral benefit for BJP.

Attributing the attack to the "incompetence and negligence of the Indian system" and CRPF, Malik said that the request for airlifting the soldiers had been refused by the home ministry, while the sanitisation before the transfer by road was inefficient.

"I had sensed that all of this onus will be diverted towards Pakistan so it's better to keep quiet," Malik said, confirming that the strategy was to politically benefit from the incident.

On February 14, 2019, around 40 Indian soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and dozens injured at the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in the Awantipora area in the Pulwama district of the IIOJK, an attack which is dubbed as the deadliest in Indian forces in over a decade.

The soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off as a convoy of military vehicles drove by, some 20 kilometres from the main city of Srinagar.