New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the Pulwama terror attack in 2019, which led to the deaths of 40 CRPF soldiers, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had politicised the deaths for the elections that year.The Telegraph has reported on Malik’s speech at an event at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, in which he spoke of the silence of the government on the killings.Malik was the last governor of J&K and was in position when the attack took place.“I demand Supreme Court-monitored investigations into the Pulwama terror attack in which our 40 troops were martyred. So far, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have maintained a deafening silence on the tragedy and have failed to own up to the glaring lapses that led to the killings,” Telegraph quoted Malik as having said.This is not the first time that Malik has spoken on the government’s accountability in this tragedy.In an explosive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Malik had said that the CRPF had asked the Union home ministry for aircraft to ferry their people “because such a big convoy never goes by road.” The home ministry refused, he claimed.“I told it to the Prime Minister in the evening that this has happened due to our fault. Had we given the aircraft, this wouldn’t have happened. To which he told me that I should keep quiet now,” Malik had said, adding that NSO Ajit Doval had also said this to him.Malik also noted that “eight to 10 link roads were unmanned”, pointing to an overall failure.The Pulwama attack had taken place just months before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out airstrikes in Pakistan’s Balakot.In the interview, Malik disagreed with Karan Thapar on the phrasing that Modi used the attack to leverage his re-election pitch.“In my language, I can just say that instead of going to the root cause or the starting point of that matter, or maybe if we also went to the start and completely investigated every thing, we might have to change things for our own personal benefit,” he said.On Wednesday, he struck a clearer tone and appeared to blame Modi for politicising the deaths.“Modi had politicised the killings of 40 CRPF soldiers and the IAF strikes in Balakot during the Lok Sabha polls and had even asked first-time voters to dedicate their vote to the valiant soldiers who carried out the air strike in Balakot,” Malik said.“It has been over four years since then, but the Modi government has failed to fix accountability. Winning elections is his only priority. The people of this country need to remain alert that similar attacks can happen this time too before the parliamentary polls,” Malik added.
