‘Terror attacks, violence up in J&K in 5 years’
We never compromised national security
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 2: Former Prime Minister for two terms from 2004-2014 and veteran Congress leader, Dr Manmohan Singh said today that “multiple surgical strikes’’ were conducted during their tenure and armed forces were always given free hand to operationally respond to every threat but maintained such issues were never used for “vote garnering exercises’’.
In a rare interview to a national English daily, Manmohan charged the present leadership of country with hiding behind the valour of armed forces to draw the attention away from “unpardonable failure’’ of Modi Government on economic front, jobs, rural distress, MSMEs and informal sector.
“Let me remind you that our armed forces were always given a free hand to operationally respond to every threat. Multiple surgical strikes took place during our tenure too. For us, military operations were meant for strategic deterrence and giving a befitting reply to anti-India forces than to be used for vote garnering exercises. In the past 70 years, a Government in power never had to hide behind the valour of our armed forces. Such attempts to politicize our forces are shameful and unacceptable,’’ Manmohan Singh said.
Asserting that armed forces received a free hand to respond to external threats during the term of the Congress-led UPA Government, the former Prime Minister said the Bhartiya Janata Party’s attempt to gain electoral mileage from military operations was “shameful and unacceptable”.
Manmohan Singh declared that compromise on India’s national security is unacceptable.
“Forty four of our brave CRPF soldiers were martyred in the Pulwama terror attack at the most secure National Highway in the country. This is a grave intelligence and national security failure. Since then, it has come out that CRPF and BSF were requesting for airlifting the soldiers but the Modi Government refused it,’’ he said.
Charging the Government with ignoring “solid intelligence inputs’’ from Jammu and Kashmir Police about an IED attack, besides turning a blind eye to a video warning of a terrorist organization, the veteran Congress leader, who headed the Congress Policy Planning Groups on Jammu and Kashmir, said: “In the past five years, Pakistan based terrorists have repeatedly targeted India’s military installations at Pampore, Uri, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Sunjwan Army Camp, and even attacked the Amarnath Yatra’’.
He was referring to fidayeen attacks at these places by the militants in the past in which number of security personnel were martyred.
Describing Modi Government as “utter failure’’ on the issue of national security, Manmohan said during last five years, terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir alone have gone up by 176% ; ceasefire violations at the border by Pakistan have increased by 1,000%. There have been 17 major terror attacks on our security installations. Defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP is lowest in the last 57 years. Does it not speak volumes about the performance and priorities of this Government?
The former Prime Minister said inviting ISI to investigate the Pathankot air base terror attack was the “biggest strategic blunder’’ committed by the Modi Government. “This demoralized our armed forces’’.
Lambasting the previous PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Singh said during past five years, internal security situation in the State had rapidly deteriorated because of this “opportunist alliance’’ as well as lack of clear-cut Pakistan policy.
Responding to a question on India’s response after 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the veteran Congress leader said: “In the absence of facts, everyone can re-judge history in hindsight. I disagree with the insinuation that we were not ready with military punitive actions. However, different geopolitical conditions require different responses. Our response was to isolate and diplomatically expose Pakistan as a terror hub, besides rallying the international community for decisive action against terrorists’’.
Manmohan Singh maintained that the UPA Government succeeded in this regard
“Within 14 days of the Mumbai attack, we got China to agree to declare Hafiz Saeed as a global terrorist under the Sanctions Committee of UN. Congress-UPA ensured that a $10m bounty was placed on the head of the Mumbai attack perpetrator and the founder of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hafiz Saeed by America. Another mastermind, David Headley was convicted to 35 years of prison during UPA-Congress Govt in 2013. The UN Security Council also put top LeT members involved in Mumbai attack on sanctions lists as terrorists. This has virtually rendered LeT ineffective today,’’ he said.
Maintaining that the UPA Government made counterterrorism cooperation in the international community against LeT more effective, Manmohan said the countries like Saudi Arabia and even China co-operated to a great deal.
“Several terrorists were arrested and deported to India, as they travelled outside Pakistan. Sheikh Abdul Khwaja, handler of the 26/11 attack and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) chief of operations for India, was subsequently picked up in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and brought to Hyderabad and formally arrested in January 2010. Zaibuddin Ansari (aka Abu Hamza/Abu Jundal) was arrested at the Delhi airport in June 2012, after he was deported from Saudi Arabia,’’ he said.
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