PM Modi told me to keep quiet on Pulwama: Satyapal Malik

Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has claimed that he apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the alleged security lapses after the Pulwama attack on soldiers in February 2019 but was asked to keep quiet.

Satya Pal Malik, the Governor, who oversaw heightened times during the abrogation of Article 370, said the prime minister is "ill-informed" and "ignorant" about Kashmir and asked him to keep quiet about the government lapses, which claimed the lives of 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Pulawama.

In an interview with The Wire, Malik said that Pulwama was a result of the "incompetence" of the CRPF and the home ministry.

Malik said he personally apprised the prime minister about the security lapse when Modi called him from outside Corbett Park shortly after the Pulwama attack. But he was told to keep quiet about this and not tell anyone.

Malik claimed that then only he came to know that the intention was to pin the blame on Pakistan and make it an electoral issue for the benefit of the BJP.

The 76-year-old leader said that a car from Pakistan carrying 300 kilograms of RDX explosives was travelling around the villages of Jammu and Kashmir for 10-15 days without being detected.

Malik's statement has given the Opposition parties fresh ammunition to take on the BJP-led Central government.

The Congress on Saturday claimed that PM Modi and Rajnath Singh sacrificed the lives of our brave hearts in Pulwama, for their shameless hunger for power.

"The Home Minister should stop trying to play Narada Muni and address the very serious charges levelled against his Saheb by his own party colleague, Satyapal Malik," tweeted Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

However, the ruling BJP dig out Malik's old intweviews including the one that mocked Rahul Gandhi as a "political juvenile", and slammed him as the "disgraced governor of Jammu and Kashmir".

"And before Congress minions get all excited about Satyapal Malik, their new found knight in the shinning armour, here is what he had to say about Rahul Gandhi. So, sit down," BJP's I-T department head Amit Malviya tweeted, sharing a video of Malik.