Hyderabad: Former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Vikram Sood yesterday said the Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 40 CRPF jawans were martyred, was not the handiwork of a single man but a group.
Addressing a seminar on ‘External Intelligence for National Security’ yesterday, Sood said, “This kind of an incident does not take place without a security lapse somewhere.. they had knowledge about the movement of the (CRPF) vehicles. There must have been group of people who did it.”
When asked about what India’s response would be, he said it was not a boxing match and as Modi had said, the timing and place would be chosen by the security forces.
He further said that the enmity Pakistan has for India is permanent. No amount of peace talks and concessions is going to help.
China once again denied support to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist at the United Nations Security Council. Reacting to this, Sood said, “China is playing to Pakistan’s requests. China is the only safeguard for them in UN when it comes to having Masood Azhar declared a terrorist. He claimed that China was doing it beacuse it harboured apprehensions that Islamic outfits in Xinjiang province might maintain links with their terrorists in Pakistan. So, it is a quid-pro-quo. China will do this for Pakistan.. Pakistan will make sure that these terrorists don’t give trouble to them in Xinjiang.”
Speaking about the threat posed by China, Sood said, it was China and not Pakistan who was the bigger threat and that the country has to prepare for it. China was using Pakistan as a ploy against us.
Former Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah stated that there was a need for a national policy on Kashmir.
A Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with over 100 kg of explosives into a bus carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Pulwama district on 14 February. 40 CRPF personnel were killed and five injured in the incident. Since the Uri attack in 2016, the Pulwama incident has been termed as one of the worst terror attacks in the recent past. The suicide bomber was identified as Adil Ahmed, who had joined the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in 2018. The terror group has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.