Pulwama attack: CRPF investigation revealed intelligence failure and convoy length
In an interview with The Wire, former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik stated that prior to the Pulwama attack, the Home Ministry refused to provide five aircraft requested by the CRPF to transport its personnel, resulting in a large number of security personnel moving by road in convoy and becoming the target of a deadly terrorist ambush.
The Sunday Express reached out to the CRPF D-G for comment, S L Thaosen. He failed to return inquiries and messages. The D-G and ADG (Operations) did not respond to an email sent to them.
Following the deadly car bomb assault on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14, 2019, in which forty personnel were killed, the force conducted an internal investigation into the lapses that led to the attack.
The investigation identified intelligence failure and the excessive length of the convoy as the primary causes of the attack.
According to sources, the CRPF investigation revealed that while there were numerous reports of IED attacks, there was no specific information about the convoy. It also identified the duration of the convoy as one of the security gaps in the preparedness for the movement of forces.
Following the assault, the government authorised air travel for all soldiers stationed in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to sources, the investigation revealed that on the day in question, the convoy consisted of 78 vehicles, an unusually large number. According to sources, the investigation revealed that this made the movement of the convoy not only susceptible to leaks, but also highly visible and accessible.
At 3.30 p.m., as the convoy passed through Pulwama, a car drove onto the highway from a side road and then exploded near the fifth bus in convoy. The investigation also praised the efforts of a CRPF trooper who observed the car on the highway and attempted to stop it. He, too, was destroyed by the explosion.
The highway between Srinagar and Jammu had been impassable due to precipitation for several days before the convoy’s arrival, as reported by sources. This resulted in the detention in Srinagar of military personnel who was scheduled to depart the Valley for duty elsewhere.
The Home Ministry handed over the investigation to the NIA. The NIA filed a 13,800-page chargesheet in the case, attributing the attack to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Pakistan.
According to the indictment, nearly 200 kilogrammes of explosives, including about 35 kilogrammes of RDX, were used in the attack, for which 19 individuals were charged. These include JeM leader Masood Azhar, his siblings Rouf Asgar and Ammar Alvi, and his nephew Mohammed Umer Farooq, who infiltrated India in April 2018 and was killed in an encounter following the Pulwama attack in March 2019.
Farooq is the son of the perpetrator of IC 814, Mohammed Ibrahim Ather. The hijacking of the Air India flight in 1999 led to Masood Azhar’s release from Indian custody.
According to the NIA, five JeM operatives, including Umer Farooq, entered India in April 2018 through a tunnel on the international frontier in the Samba sector of Jammu.
Hundreds of WhatsApp conversations were made between Pakistani numbers and those held by Farooq and his associates around the time of the attack. The NIA was able to pinpoint the exact locations of these phone numbers in Pakistan.
NIA has also affixed a card with the words “Pakistan National Identity Card” printed on it. It featured an image of Farooq and his information. According to sources, these identification cards are issued by Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority and are required for voting and obtaining a passport.
