Modi government has miserably failed to give a “befitting response” to Pakistan. Be it a terror attack or be it disregarding the LoC. Pakistan has been indulging in such actions repeatedly on the LoC and International Border, which is a matter of grave concern as a large number of jawans are being killed; while the ruling party used them for vote bank but nothing is being done to protect their interest. Ahead of the general election, such happenings suggest that it was done with a lot of planning. Pakistan’s Border Action Team resorted to attacks and sniper strikes repeatedly during the recent years, which is very serious. If you listen to PM Modi’s speeches during 2014, you will know what double standards these people have. If Modi himself listens to his speeches, he will not vote for himself. The BJP just brutally attacked the then UPA government but when it came to the power, nothing much was delivered. They had to make a movie to convince people about the most debatable surgical strike after the Uri attack ahead of the 2019 elections. The government might be using many mouthpieces to speak on their behalf and convince the people about their loud claims, however, the ground reality is just different.
There is a strong resentment amongst the people living in the border areas against Pakistan’s actions. Modi-led BJP government had failed to give a befitting response to Pakistan and check its misadventures on the borders.
In January itself, seven soldiers of the Indian Army were killed along the LoC. In 2017, according to the data released by the government, 29 Indian soldiers died while manning the LoC. This is a sharp increase from the year 2016 when 13 Indian soldiers were killed along the LoC. The hostilities between India and Pakistan have been soaring from the last four years, but the latter half of 2017 saw more Indian soldiers being killed than the first six months. Apart from the causalities, the year 2017 also saw a huge spike in cross-border ceasefire violation. According to official figures, 860 incidents of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops were reported in 2017, compared with 221 the year before.
The LoC is a 776 km stretch of a frontier that snakes across the mountains of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the most intensively manned and militarised border in the world. During the same period, as many as 411 soldiers were martyred in Jammu and Kashmir and 256 civilians lost their lives in terrorist attacks. Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Narender Singh was tortured, tormented, and murdered by Pakistan but the Prime Minister has not uttered even a word on it. Singh’s throat was slit by Pakistani troops after he was fatally shot along the International Border (IB) near Jammu. However, we, the people, just mourned for a day and forgot the same. The brave soldiers from the region have always made supreme sacrifices to protect the frontiers of the nation, as serving in the army is a proud tradition.
District Pulwama came into being in the year 1979 in the larger interests of the maintenance of law and order, closer supervision, more effective control, and above all to ensure balanced development of the area. The district is centrally located in the valley of Kashmir and is a resting place for the adventure tourists since it has abundant water and hospitable countryside. The National Highway NH1 that connects Srinagar and Jammu passes through Pulwama. The militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), that claimed the responsibility for the attack has released a video of the suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar alias ‘Waqas Commando of Gundibagh’. So much planning was done ahead of this terror attack and many clues were also given before this attack but our government and its intelligence forces were busy digging opposition leaders graves then looking in to tackle the threat. The scene of devastation and destruction caused by the suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 42 security personnel sent chills down the spine of unsuspecting locals who witnessed the blood bath. The death toll is likely to increase. The explosive used in the attack was so strong that the blast was heard from 10-12 km away, including some parts of Srinagar adjoining the Pulwama district. Body parts of the terrorist, identified as Adil Ahmad, and the CRPF personnel killed in the attack were strewn on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway, where the incident happened.
Some of the bodies were so badly blown up that the officials feel it may take some time to even identify them. This is the first suicide car bomb strike in Kashmir since the 2001 attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that left 41 persons, including three suicide attackers, dead. More than 2,500 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when the suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a bus carrying 39-44 jawans. There was nothing at the scene of the incident to suggest which type of vehicle was used to carry out the attack except the mangled heap of iron of the bus that was the target. As soon as the explosion took place, people started running for safety.
The scene of the incident is not very far from the Commando Training Centre at Lethpora, which was stormed by Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists on December 31, 2017, killing five CRPF personnel. The Jammu-Srinagar Highway has been witness to several terror attacks on the security forces. CRPF bore the brunt of an attack at Pampore, less than seven kilometres from Lethpora, in June 2016, losing eight jawans while 22 others sustained injuries. Terrorists had attacked a CRPF convoy in Pampore area in February that year as well, before taking refuge at a government building. The operation against the holed up terrorists lasted more than two days that resulted in the death of nine persons, including three Army men and three ultras.
The death toll of CRPF jawans in the February 14 suicide attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir has touched 42 after five critically injured jawans succumbed at the Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar and the toll is likely to rise. Many more jawans are battling for life in the hospital. Hope this is enough now to take action and stop these attacks on jawans!
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