New Delhi: Terming the July 10 militant attacks on Amarnath pilgrims as failure of the Jammu and Kashmir policy of the NDA , the Congress today charged the government of compromising with the national security. Talking to reporters here, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, ”Attack on Amarnath Yatra and killing of yatris happened on account of gross and grave intelligence failure, despite specific inputs as early as on June 27.”
“Nearly 36 hrs have passed but neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Minister of the country have come forward to either admit the grave security failure or assure the nation of decisive action,” he said. Questioning the government of lack of any preventive steps after the advance intelligence inputs, Mr Singhvi said, ”Despite specific inputs from the IB and other intelligence agencies, there was not one, but three terror attacks. First, there was a terror attack at a police bunker at Batengoo, followed by an attack on a police naka at Khanabal.”
“An explicit alert was given by the Jammu and Kashmir police. Just two days before the yatra began, Inspector General (Kashmir Range) Muneer Khan had issued a warning to all the security agencies, based on an input from Anantnag police, warning of a massive attack on the pilgrims. Why did the Government not act on such a specific intelligence input?” he questioned. He further asked as to how the militants managed to attack the bus twice during the curfew hours as also why the bus was left out of the convoy and adequate security was not provided to it. ”According to the preliminary report by the MJA, the bus was attacked ‘not once but twice, in close succession’.
First, the militants opened fire at the vehicle at 2017 hrs, near Habba Khatoon petrol pump, while it was returning from Amarnath to Jammu and then there was a second attack from the first spot. How did the militants manage to attack the bus twice during curfew hours? Also, BJP National IT cell chief Amit Malaviya has gone on record to say that the bus was ‘registered’. “Why was the fateful bus left out of the convoy? Why was adequate security not provided to it to ensure safety of the passengers, particularly when it was past 1900 hrs, that is the time after which vehicles cannot ply in view of the security threat? If this is so, it is the grossest failure to provide security to hapless Amarnath yatris, which has resulted in their killing by militants,” Mr Singhvi said. Mr Singhvi said that the policy failure and lack of clear direction by the government had resulted in 13 major militant attacks in the country, including attack on Uri, Pathankot, Gurdaspur and now this attack on Amarnath pilgrims.
He also blamed the lack of a full time defence minister in the NDA government for major part of its 38 month rule as being responsible for the recent militant attacks and thriving cross border terrorism. ”Merely tweeting on Kashmiriyat and replying to a troll will not absolve Home Minister Rajnath Singh of his primary responsibility to maintain peace and tranquillity. Since the past 38 months, India either had a part time Defence Minister or a reluctant one, which is a sad commentary on the state of affairs which is endangering our national security. Should Prime Minister Narendra Modi not own responsibility for endangering our national security?” he said.
He also charged the BJP of speaking in multiple, contradictory, antithetical and discrepant voices on the incident. While on the one hand, Minister of state for Home Hansraj Ahir has said, “We will look into the security lapses and will fill in the gaps” and BJP Deputy CM of Jammu and Kashmir Nirmal Singh conceded that “there was definitely a lapse in security”, BJP national general secretary incharge in the state Ram Madhav sharply contradicted them and said “there was no security lapse”. “Why is the BJP speaking in multiple, contradictory, antithetical and discrepant voice?” Mr Singhvi asked.
