India home minister challenges account of 2019 deadly attack on military convoy
23/04/2023 08:08
NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's government has nothing to hide concerning a
deadly attack on a military convoy in Kashmir in 2019, India's
home minister said.
Earlier this month, Satya Pal Malik, the then-Jammu and
Kashmir governor, alleged that paramilitary personnel were
denied air transport and were made to travel by road amid
intelligence failures to detect a threat.
Malik informed Modi that the attack was a failure on the
government's part but was asked to stay silent, he told local
news outlet the Wire.
Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking in a roundtable discussion
on the India Today TV programme, said the credibility of the
comments needed to be questioned.
"I would surely tell the people of the country that the
Bharatiya Janata Party government has done nothing that needs to
be hidden," he said.
His comments are the government's first response to Malik's
allegations.
A suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian
paramilitary police in Kashmir on February 14, 2019, killing 40
of them in the deadliest attack in decades on security forces in
the disputed region and raising tensions with arch foe Pakistan.
The Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad
(JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Kashmir is a Muslim-majority region at the heart of decades
of hostility between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. The
neighbours both rule parts of the region while claiming the
entire territory as theirs.
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar; Editing by
Edwina Gibbs)
((Shivangi.Acharya@thomsonreuters.com;))