A major terror attack was averted by the Police and security forces in Pulwama after the Police had received inputs regarding the movement of a car laden with explosives. When the car ultimately arrived at night, a few rounds of bullets were fired following which the terrorist driving the car abandoned it a bit further down the road, thus preventing a major terror attack from occurring. NDTV has now referred to the terrorist driving the car as a mere ‘driver’.
Although NDTV mentioned in its report that the ‘driver’ was suspected to be a terrorist associated with the Hizbul Mujahideen and was in touch with Jaish-e-Muhammad that was behind the Pulwama Terror Attack in 2019, it failed to mention the same while sharing the link to the report through its account on Twitter. The terror attack that was averted during the intervening night between the 27th and 28th of May, too, had similarities with the terror attack last year in that this time as well, the terrorists had chosen to use a vehicle-borne IED to achieve their sinister objectives.
Latest developments in averted terror attack in Pulwama
Jammu & Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh said that in the past, terror attacks involving IEDs have been perpetrated by Lashkar-e-taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad. He said that there was little doubt that Hizbul Mujahideen and other local outfits had also taken part. He said that a modus operandi similar to the one observed in the Pulwama Terror Attack had occurred in this instance also.
It was further said that a Pakistani terrorist called Walid, who belongs to the Jaish-e-Muhammad, is suspected of involvement in this incident. Apart from him, there has been confirmation regarding some other individuals also but their names could not be shared as the investigation is in an early stage. Apart from foreign actors, local actors have also been identified as suspects.
Apart from him, there has been confirmation about some other characters also, but their names cannot be shared at this stage as we are in initial stages of our investigation.
— Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) May 28, 2020
DGP Dilbag Singh also said that such inputs regarding potential security threats are very frequent during this time of the year terrorists attempt such actions during the time of Jung-e-Badr. Therefore, everyone was already on alert during Ramzan. On the 11th of May, there was input that some act of terrorism could occur somewhere. He said that after Riyaz naikoo was eliminated, there was pressure on terrorists to go in for ‘so9me big act’. He said that the incident could be the consequence of a meeting that took place in Pakistan where Syed Salauddin of Hizbul Mujahideen and terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad took part.
May be this is the result of the meeting that took place across in Pakistan wherein Syed Salahuddin from Hizb and some other characters from Jaish and Lashkar took part.
— Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) May 28, 2020
Drawing parallel to the Pulwama Terror Attack of 2019, he said in this instance as well a santro car was used and perhaps coincidentally, in both the cases, the colour of the vehicle was white. In 2019, the fabrication part of the plan was carried out by LeT and JeM and in this instance as well, as per input received, the fabrication part was handled by the two organisations. In this instance as well, according to inputs a local boy was used about whom the police has a ‘fair idea’. The Pulwama Terror Attack occurred at a national highway and in this instance as well, the car was being taken to the national highway for the next part of the plan.
DGP Dilbag Singh said that the car was intercepted at the Pulwama link road, Kushipura to Rajpura road. It is believed that the terrorists were using the link road as these roads are not patrolled by security forces or the police at night. But since the police had prior information, all possible roads were covered by the Army, as a consequence of which the terrorists could not succeed.
May be this is the result of the meeting that took place across in Pakistan wherein Syed Salahuddin from Hizb and some other characters from Jaish and Lashkar took part.
— Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) May 28, 2020
Apologia for Islamic terrorism by NDTV
Nidhi Sethi, Deputy News Editor of NDTV, had posted a comment on Facebook which seemed to glorify the terror attack by Jaish-e-Muhammad. She had written, “where a grisly 44 has been proven to be greater than the mythical 56”. With this, she had added a hashtag #HowstheJaish, a take on the famous dialogue ‘How’s the Josh’ from the recent movie Uri: The Surgical Strike. She was later suspended by NDTV.
Barkha Dutt, when she was with NDTV, had referred to terrorist Burhan Wani as the son of a school headmaster after he was eliminated by security forces. During her time with NDTV, she also justified the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley by providing ‘context’ to the entire matter that gravely mirrored the Nazis.
