Pulwama Attack 2019 Wiki

On the afternoon of 14^th February, 2019 a convoy of vehicles along the Jammu Srinagar National Highway carrying Central Reserve Police Force was targeted by terrorists with a car bomb at Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Responsibility of the Pulwama attack was attributed to Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.

UPDATE: Based on our extensive analysis here are 12 questions on Pulwama attack that still remain unanswered to this day.

Also read: Balakot Airstrike – Forensic Satellite Imagery Analysis

Background

In 2001, three terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly in Srinagar using a Tata Sumo loaded with explosives killing 38 people. The recent Pulwama attack resembles the same pattern.

On August 26, 2017, three terrorists stormed the District Police Lines Pulwama, killing eight security force personnel, before the assailants were shot dead.

Attack in Iran

“It is certain that the perpetrators of this crime were linked to spy agencies of certain regional and trans-regional countries and the country’s relevant organizations must focus on that and seriously pursue it.”

– Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei

Pulwama attack mirrors a suicide bombing in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan border province a day earlier which left 27 elite Revolutionary Guards dead and 13 others wounded. A unit of Revolutionary Guards in south-eastern Iran was returning in a bus from the Pakistan border on Wednesday when an explosive-laden car blew up on Khash-Zahedan road, killing all security personnel on board.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Pakistan must also be accountable for terror attack in Iran as the assault was plotted on and launched from Pakistani soil. “The Pakistani government should be accountable for this act involving the grouplet orchestrating and conducting the operation from their (the Pakistanis’) territory,” Larijani said during a parliamentary session. He said that despite the respect Iran has for the government in neighboring Pakistan, “such behavior will severely damage the level of cooperation between the two countries.” Iranian border guards have repeatedly come under attacks by terror outfits active on the Pakistani soil. The two neighbors signed a security deal in 2013.

According to sources in security agencies, the modus operandi was similar—ramming an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying soldiers. In both cases, the terror outfits that claimed responsibility for the bombings have the same first name – Jaish. The so-called Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group, which is linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the bombing. The terrorist outfit was formed in 2012 by members of the Pakistan-based Jundallah, another terror group dismantled by Iranian intelligence forces in 2010 after its ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi was executed.

However, in contrast to the Indian response the Iranians not only identified the players on the ground but also its state sponsorship and the regimes pulling the string from the background. Instead of just focusing on the foot-soldiers as is the norm in any investigation in India, Iran has gone beyond in uncovering the geopolitical angle to the attacks which is the norm with major players.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei denounced the attack, saying the spy agencies of certain regional and trans-regional countries certainly had a hand in this crime: “It is certain that the perpetrators of this crime were linked to spy agencies of certain regional and trans-regional countries and the country’s relevant organizations must focus on that and seriously pursue it.”

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif raised suspicion about the attack’s possible links to an anti-Iran summit co-hosted by the US and Poland, which kicked off in Warsaw on a day earlier. President Hassan Rouhani also described the US and the Israeli regime as the “root causes of terror” in the Middle East region as he condemned the deadly attack on the IRGC forces.

The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warned Saudi Arabia and the UAE that they could face retaliatory measures for supporting terrorists on behalf of the US and Israel. General Mohammad Ali Jafari said, “The patience that the establishment once exercised against conspiracies and reactionary regimes in the region, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE which carry out these acts on orders from the US and Israel, will be different and we will definitely take reparative measures”.

Attack

Bad Weather

Kashmir received heavy snowfall since January. According to India Meteorological Department around the day of the attack minimum temperature in Srinagar was zero degree Celsius while it was minus 2.6 and minus 6.2 degree in Pahalgam and Gulmarg, respectively.

The Srinagar-Jammu highway had been shut for the past two days because of bad weather. A lot of jawans got stranded in Jammu because of roadblocks due to snowfall. Last convoy movement happened on 4 February. Hence, the CRPF requested to be air-lifted, which was refused by top=government officials. If at all they were to be sent by road, a request was also made to provide armored-trucks instead of buses. This gave the terrorists a dual advantage of blocking the entire convoy as well as causing maximum damage.

Huge Convoy

On the afternoon of 14^th February, 2019 an unusually high number of personnel, some 2,500 soldiers were on the move on the National Highway 44 in a convoy of 70 vehicles because the Srinagar-Jammu highway had been shut for the past two days because of bad weather. The attack site Awantipora, around 20 km from Srinagar is considered to be a sanitized and heavily-protected highway.

Vehicle used

Initial reports suggested that the vehicle used by the terrorists was a Mahindra Scorpio carrying more than 350 kg (disputed) of explosives. Investigators came to the conclusion that a red Maruti Suzuki Eco was used after a bumper of the vehicle was found at the site. NIA sources informed OneIndia that the Maruti team would trace the vehicle owner to the vehicle dealer, from where the ownership details would be collected.

Sources told CNN-News18 that the jawans travelling in bus numbers 2 and 4 had seen bomber Adil Dar drive a red car near the convoy minutes before he rammed bus number 3. “He swerved left and right for at least two minutes while the escorts in bus 3 repeatedly told him to get away from the convoy,” an eyewitness told investigators. CRPF jawans travelling in the other buses have told investigators that the red Eeco car started tailing the convoy from Jammu. “His attempts to hit the convoy started with the last bus. He succeeded with bus number 3.”

The distance from Jammu to Awantipora is over 200 kms. Soldiers in the convoy knew something was amiss about the red car since the beginning of the stretch from Jammu. Yet they managed to slip through the nose of the entire convoy.

The suicide attacker, driving towards the convoy from the opposite direction, rammed a bus with 39 personnel. Bullet marks on the bus indicate that more terrorists may have been hiding and may have fired at the convoy. Some unverified reports of grenade lobbying and firing upon vehicles of 35 Battalion and 179 Battalion were also reported.

Usually, troops are airlifted for safety but in this case, a large contingent was moving together, setting it up for a terror strike. Sources say the convoy, which started around 3:30 am from Jammu, was big because the highway had been shut over bad weather for two days. The soldiers were rejoining duty after leave and were to report in Srinagar for deployment.

Around 3 pm, the suicide bomber, Adil Ahmad Dar — a local terrorist who lived 10 km away — was waiting to strike with a car full of explosives. There was around 60 kg (disputed) of RDX in his car, according to sources. So powerful was the impact that some bus parts were found a km away. It is not clear how he got his hands on so much RDX, who helped him and how such a big consignment went unnoticed.

The bomber tried to overtake the convoy from the left and spotted two buses full of CRPF personnel. He detonated the explosives next to one of the buses, causing a huge explosion that was heard several km away. One bus was blown into smithereens and the one nearest to it was also ripped apart.

An official said if the buses were moving close together, it is a huge violation of Standard Operating Procedure. Any two vehicles in a convoy must be a safe distance apart so that collateral damage is minimized.

Intelligence

The Pulwama attack is attributed to Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad based on prior intelligence and a video posted on Twitter. Further evidence is awaited after investigation.

Missive

On February 8, 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir police had reportedly sent an intelligence input to the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, Army and the Air Force warning of a possible IED attack. Headlined “extremely urgent” the intelligence input, sent on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, asked all security agencies to “sanitize areas properly before occupying your place or deployment as there are inputs that IEDs could be used”.

Video

Later, two days prior to the attack the Jammu and Kashmir police shared another intelligence input with all security agencies about a video uploaded on Twitter. The clip carried the threat of suicide attack. It showed a 33 second video of troops in Somalia being attacked by militants in a similar fashion. The clip was posted from the Twitter account 313_get.

This input was shared during the meeting held two days back and all security formations were alerted. Jammu and Kashmir police had also prepared a dummy video to explain how militants may possibly carry out such an attack.

Capture of British National

US Travel Advisory

Day before the Pulwama attack the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the US State Department issued a travel advisory for Americans traveling to areas near the India-Pakistan border.

• Balochistan province and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, including the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), due to terrorism.
• The Azad Kashmir area due to terrorism and the potential for armed conflict.

The advisory described Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as ‘Azad Kashmir’ indicating a change in the U.S. terminology as PoK is usually described in U.S. official declarations as Pakistan Administered Kashmir. The issue is yet to be officially addressed by Indian government.

The fact that the advisory was issued day before the attack in Pulwama indicate that Americans might have had credible actionable intelligence regarding the attack. Was this intelligence shared with India, now that India is America’s new ‘strategic partner’ as charted out in the ‘Blueprint for the 100 year long US-India Strategic Partnership’?

The issue is further complicated by the fact that recently sophisticated American weapons were found to have made their way in the Kashmir valley. In November 2017, addressing a press conference in Srinagar, the inspector general of police (IGP) Kashmir range, Sardar Muneer Ahmed Khan displayed M4 carbine rifle, the US-made machine gun, found near the bodies of three terrorists killed in Pulwama on the evening of November 6. One of the slain terrorist commanders, Talha Rasheed, near whose body the gun was recovered, was the nephew of Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar who is alleged to be responsible for the recent Pulwama attack.

It should be noted that this US-made rifle has been recovered at a time when militants in Kashmir are largely presumed to be facing a shortage of arms and ammunition. This is for the first time in the past decade or so that a sophisticated US-made weapon has been recovered from militants in the valley. Mostly used by the NATO forces battling Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, this American-origin rifle is a shorter and lighter variant of the M16A2 assault rifle.

Attribution

By nightfall on the same day Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) released a statement condemning the terror attack in Pulwama attributing it to Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad

This heinous and despicable act  has been perpetrated by  Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based and supported terrorist organisation proscribed by the United Nations and other countries.  This terror group is led by the international terrorist Masood Azhar, who has been given full freedom by Government of Pakistan  to operate and expand his terror infrastructure in territories under the control of Pakistan and to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere with impunity.

We strongly reiterate our appeal to all members of the international community to  support the proposal to list terrorists, including JeM Chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council and to ban terrorist organisations operating from territories controlled by Pakistan.

Adil Ahmad Dar

Official sources said that the attack was carried out by one Adil Ahmad Dar alias “Waqas Commando”. A resident of Kakapora, he had joined the terror outfit last year. He was also known as “Adil Ahmad Gaadi Takranewala”, meaning the one who will crash the vehicle.

As per senior official of the Central Intelligence Bureau (IB) and an officer with the Pulwama police Adil Ahmad Dar was detained six times between September 2016 and March 2018 for stone-pelting and on suspicion of aiding activities of Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The fact that Adil, 20, from Gundibagh village in Pulwama, was held multiple times in less than two years suggests he had been a person of considerable interest to security agencies. This raises the question whether he fell off the radar because of an intelligence lapse, though the two officers Mirror spoke to clarified that Adil was never formally charged with a crime or named in an FIR.

Adil apparently left Lashkar and joined Jaish because the former’s local cells faced a weapons shortage. Lashkar had a condition for new recruits: they could join only after killing a policeman or jawan and snatching his gun. This drove Adil towards Jaish, which had an open-door policy.

According to the Pulwama officer, Adil started working as an over-ground worker (OGW) for Lashkar in 2016, helping its militants who had sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir find a safe refuge and other support. He also acted as a go-between for Lashkar commanders and local youths who wanted to join their ranks.

The officer said some members in Adil’s family were known to have links with terror outfits. His cousin, Manzor Dar, was a prominent Lashkar OGW, helping move militants such as Abu Qasim and Abu Dujana from the International Border and Line of Control. Manzor, along with some militants from Pakistan, was killed in a security operation in south Kashmir’s Newa area in the later part of 2017. Six months later, Manzor’s brother, Adil and four friends became full-fledged operatives of Jaish-e-Mohammad, the police officer said.

“We sent an alert to all district senior superintendents of police, asking them to secure all major roads. Shabir was killed in a security operation on January 26. However, the alert remained active” as per the IB official. Adil, it seems, was appointed in Shabir’s place and on Thursday.

Adil was deeply influenced by Manzor and the latter’s death might have played a part in his complete radicalization. After Manzor was killed along with a top Lashkar commander, Adil disappeared from his hometown. He, along with some local youths, was then trained by Jaish commander from Pakistan Omar Hafiz, who is also known as Kamran and Abdul Rashid.

Hafiz entered the Valley early last year and he was tasked with training operatives for suicide attacks. Hafiz particularly looked for Kashmiri youths who had managed to avoid scrutiny of security agencies by keeping a low profile.

Adil apparently left Lashkar and joined Jaish because the former’s local cells faced a weapons shortage. Lashkar had a condition for new recruits: they could join only after killing a policeman or jawan and snatching his gun. This drove Adil towards Jaish, which had an open-door policy.

Jaish had originally planned an attack on a security convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on February 9 to mark the death of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Heavy snowfall, however, thwarted that bid. Previous chatter picked up by intelligence agencies suggested that one Shabir had been tasked with carrying out the suicide attack.

“We sent an alert to all district senior superintendents of police, asking them to secure all major roads. Shabir was killed in a security operation on January 26. However, the alert remained active” as per the IB official. Adil, it seems, was appointed in Shabir’s place and on Thursday.

Reports suggest Adil Ahmad lived only 10 km away from the spot where he smashed his car packed with explosives into a security convoy on Thursday. A school dropout, Adil Ahmad was from Gundibagh village in south Kashmir.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi

It was reported on Sunday February 17, 2019 that the mastermind of the Pulwama attack was Abdul Rashid Ghazi and that he may still be in Kashmir valley. Reports said Ghazi had a narrow escape during an encounter which took place days before the Pulwama terror attack. Yesterday on February 18, 2019, reports came in that he was killed in an encounter in the Pinglin village of Pulwama district. Four Indian Army personnel including a Major-ranking officer belonging to 55 Rashtriya Rifles and one civilian were also killed in action. The news came from news agency Asian News International (ANI) and was reported by Indian mainstream media.

The report said Abdul Rashid Ghazi was the commander of JeM and an Afghan war veteran and was believed to have been cornered in the operation along with Mohammad Umair, nephew of JeM chief Masood Azhar. “Ghazi infiltrated into Kashmir in December 2018 to carry out terror attacks”, reported Times Now.

A detailed report by Times of India identified Ghazi as the IED specialist and trusted aide of JeM chief Masood Azhar who trained Pulwama bomber Adil Dar. “He has been trained in warfare techniques and IED preparation by the Taliban and is known to be one of the finest hands of Jaish”, the report said.

Quoting an unknown sources the report further said, “He returned to POK in 2011 after fighting the NATO forces in Federally Administered Tribal Area and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Since then, he has been the most sought after jihadi trainer who specialises in Deeni and Askari (literature and weaponry ) training in camps operated by Jaish and ISI across PoK”. As per the report Ghazi was sent to the Kashmir to take revenge after security forced neutralized Masood Azhar’s nephew, Usman.

Jaish-e-Muhammad

Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) is a Pakistan based terrorist outfit formed in 2000 by Masood Azhar. The history of JeM is the most controversial one for Pakistani as well as Indian authorities.

Timeline of Jaish-e-Muhammad

• 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked
  • A team (including Ajit Doval) is sent to negotiate release
  • Seven days later 3 terrorists are released (including Masood Azhar)
• 2000 – Masood Azhar forms Jaish-e-Muhammad
• 2001
  • October – JeM carries out bombing near Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly
  • December – JeM attacks Indian Parliament
• 2002 – JeM carries of suicide missions on Pakistani officials
• 2003 – JeM tries to assassinate President Musharraf
• 2016
  • January – Masood Azhar is believed to have masterminded Pathankot attack
  • September – JeM attacks Indian brigade headquarters in Uri
• 2019 – JeM carries our Pulwama attack

Mystery of hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814

On 24 December 1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814 also known as IC 814 was hijacked by gunmen shortly after it entered Indian airspace. Hijackers ordered the aircraft to be flown to several locations. After touching down in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, the hijackers finally forced the aircraft to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan, which at the time was controlled by the Taliban. For those of you who are not aware of the incident remember the Ajay Devgan starrer action thriller Zameen, which was based on this incident.

What was not shown in the film however and what is not known to many still is that there was a mystery man on that flight. His name is Roberto Giori and he was the owner of De la Rue who controlled 90% of the world’s currency-printing business. The 50-year-old Giori, who holds dual Swiss and Italian nationality, is one of Switzerland’s richest men. Switzerland sent a special envoy to the airport to deal with the abduction of its currency king. It also put pressure on New Delhi to come to a solution that ensured their safe release.

Two days after the hijack, on Sunday, 26 December, the Swiss Foreign Minister, Mr. Joseph Deiss, had a long telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart, Mr. Jaswant Singh, the Swiss press had reported. The Swiss Government set up a separate cell in the capital Berne to deal with the crisis and had sent special envoy, Mr. Hans Stalder, to Kandahar who regularly reported back to Berne. According to the Repubblica and Corriere Della Sera newspapers, ever since his return to Switzerland by a special plane, Mr. Roberto Giori has been under the protection of the Swiss Government.

But there is a very important missing piece to this story. It is believed that a ransom was paid by the Indian Government for the safe release of Roberto Giori; the negotiation of which was carried out by a team headed by current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

This issue has been voiced not just from political sections but also from Intelligence. This issue is a hot potato for both the Congress and BJP and is likely to boil parliament in the near future.

Whatever be the case, the motive for the hijacking was reported to be the secure release of terrorists held in Indian prisons. The hostage crisis lasted for seven days and ended after India agreed to release three militants – Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar.

Just a year after his release, Masood Azhar founded Jaish-e-Muhammad. A year later carried our an attack on Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly as well as the Indian parliament itself. He is also believed to be the mastermind of Pathankot attack and Uri attack; and most recently the Pulwama attack.

Involvement in printing Indian currency notes

While the release of terrorists maybe one of the motive for hijacking the plane, there are bigger things at stake here than is usually understood. Roberto Giori was not an ordinary man not even an ordinary VVIP. He was the owner of the company that has been printing currency notes for more than 150 countries since centuries. And it has a dark history in each and every country that it operated in.

De La Rue was blacklisted and banned in 2010 after the Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU), an Indian Parliamentary committee was shocked to find out that the Government had outsourced the printing of Rs 1 lakh crore of currency notes to US, UK and Germany putting the “entire economic sovereignty (of the country) at stake”.

Following the scandal the Reserve Bank sent a senior official on a fact-finding mission to De La Rue‘s printing plant in Hampshire, UK. RBI which imports 95% of its security paper requirements and which is believed to account for up to a third of De la Rue’s profits excluded De la Rue from new contracts. De La Rue was blacklisted by the government with 2000 metric tonnes of its paper lying unused at printing presses and godowns. It was a disaster and De la Rue’s CEO James Hussey who is the godson of the Queen of England herself quit the company mysteriously. De la Rue’s shares tanked and it almost went bankrupt losing one of its most valuable customer – RBI. Its French rival Oberthur approached De la Rue with a bid to takeover the company which was fought back.

The complaints sent to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) by ‘unnamed officers of the Ministry of Finance’ mentioned other companies too. These include French firm Arjo Wiggins, Crane AB of USA and Louisenthal, Germany. However as recently as January 2015 the Home Ministry barred the German company, Louisenthal, from selling bank note paper to the RBI after it discovered that the firm was also selling raw notes to Pakistan.

However, even being banned and blacklisted DeLaRue was contracted for printing Indian currency notes during Demonetization. When GreatGameIndia published this story in our most read piece – The Secret World Of Indian Currency Printers, everyone from RBI to Finance Ministry denied having any such involvement with DeLaRue. GreatGameIndia received a notice from the advisory firm Brunswick on behalf of De La Rue regarding the story. De La Rue’s notice and the official GreatGameIndia response can be read here.

As a direct impact of GreatGameIndia reporting the Government Security Paper Mill (SPM) in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, has filed a recovery suit of Rs 11 crore against UK-headquartered banknote manufacture De La Rue for allegedly supplying substandard paper for printing currency notes. Through RTI we found that still De La Rue is involved in the printing of Indian currency notes. Still the questions that nobody has raised yet and that needs to be answered are these. How could a blacklisted and banned British company be given the sensitive job of printing our currency notes? Is De La Rue still blacklisted or not? If yes, than who lifted the ban? If no, than why is it involved in printing our notes still?

Investigation

Explosives used

Initial investigation into the incident has suggested that instead of RDX, ordinary chemicals, which are used in making fertilizers, were used to make explosives in the Pulwama attack. According to the forensic experts from the central probe agencies National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the National Security Guard (NSG), prime facie it appears that chemicals used in making fertilizers were mixed with shrapnel, lead balls, sharp-edged iron nails etc to maximize the impact of the blast.

Experts also opined that the raw material, which can be easily procured from the local market without being detected by the security forces, were used in making a highly powerful explosive device. The central forensic experts made these observations after critically examining the dead body of the lone suicide bomber Adil Ahmed Dar.

The NIA and J&K Police are working on inputs that the explosive, which was stuffed in Eeco van, was physically brought from across the border by couriers in backpacks. Before using the van in blasts, its chassis number, registration and other identification marks were defaced.

Investigators are trying to ascertain where and how Adil Dar got the explosives from. To answer this question, they are questioning a youth, named Arju Bashir, who is around the same age as Dar.

Bashir had in 2017 approached the police, saying Jaish-e-Mohammad had asked him to ram an army convoy using a vehicle. “If there are any links between Jaish operatives who approached Bashir and those who provided explosives to Dar, then he can prove to be a useful link,” an officer said.

The National Investigation Agency is looking for local Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorist Mudassir Ahmad Khan for his suspected role in the Pulwama attack. Mudassir Khan’s name has been shared by intelligence agencies for being part of the group that executed the bombing.

Media Inaccuracies and Fake News

In the wake of Pulwama attack a lot of fake news and propaganda was circulated over social media and even directly through mainstream Indian media.

CRPF’s Fake News Busters

“There was a flood of posts and photos and videos. Some outright gory and others filled with communal hatred. It was disturbing. Some of the posts were almost an insult to our jawans. They did not lay down their lives so that their death could become the cause for communal hatred. We knew we had to do something.”

– M Dinakaran, Deputy Inspector General and chief spokesperson of the paramilitary force

“While we were busy with the last rites of our colleagues and friends and arranging help for the injured, we noticed that many wrong and fake posts were being circulated on WhatsApp. Some of the posts were being spread by miscreants wanting to create a sense of communal unrest. Some posts were demeaning and filled with hatred. We started collecting and monitoring all of them.”

– Senior Central Reserve Police Force official who is part of the social media team monitoring fake news.

The Central Reserve Police Force has formed a team of 12 to 15 member fact-checking team to monitor and debunk the flood of fake news related to the Pulwama attack.

ADVISORY: It has been noticed that on social media some miscreants are trying to circulate fake pictures of body parts of our Martyrs to invoke hatred while we stand united. Please DO NOT circulate/share/like such photographs or posts. Report such content at [email protected]

— 🇮🇳CRPF🇮🇳 (@crpfindia) February 17, 2019

Fake Shopian Attack

A curious thing happened soon after news about the Pulwama terror attack broke out. This was the resurrection of a terror attack that never took place by Indian media.

False Press Release

On the night of the Pulwama attack, Sameed Kakroo, Jammu Bureau chief of Greater Kashmir, tweeted a screenshot of a press release statement issued by J&K BJP Media Cell.

The press release received by the editor at 6:21 pm on February 14, 2019 stated, “I strongly condemn the attack on the police post in Shopian and condole the deaths of 12 CRP personnel in the duty.” It may be emphasized here that no media reports had emerged about such an incident in Shopian district up until this point – this press release was the first instance to put out such news. Three hours later the same was reported by Times Now, News Nation and ABP News.

Reporting on Shopian

At 9:34 pm on February 14, Times Now broadcast ‘breaking news’ on The Newshour Debate about a terrorist attack on a police station located in Shopian district, Jammu and Kashmir. “As we are talking, if you set aside your politics, then, I want to inform you that terrorists have attacked a police station in Shopian. That’s the latest coming in from there. What do we see in our studio, we see once again warring politicians. Sohail joins me on the phone-line.”, said Times Now anchor Navika Kumar.

The reporter on the phone-line said, “We have talked about this incident, this has happened in Keegam area of Shopian where a grenade was lobbed on the police station followed by firing. But the police personnel who were deployed at the police station retaliated back and the area is under cordon. Meanwhile, the security forces have also launched coordinated search operations in 15 villages of Pulwama and this is being seen in the backdrop of the attack that took place today on the National Highway 44 in Awantipora area of Kashmir valley.”

News Nation too reported, “Amid growing rage over Pulwama blast, there are reports of another terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district.” At 9:49 pm, ABP News also reported that militants had attacked the ‘Keegam police station.’

Attack that never was

https://twitter.com/Sandeep_IPS_JKP/status/1096081295384272898

A senior police official of the Shopian district himself called out the “fake news” propagated by Times Now. “Kindly avoid whatsapp driven fake news cycle @TimesNow like the attack on Keegam PP in Shopian. No such attack took place. @JmuKmrPolice @KashmirPolice”, tweeted the Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Chaudhary.

In a reply to Chaudhary, Times Now clarified with a tweet saying that the news report was unverified and the error is regretted. However, it may be noted that the broadcast video with the misinformation has not been deleted yet. While Times Now has issued a clarification, News Nation and ABP are yet to acknowledge their error. The fake news was first debunked by Alt News.

Fake reporting on Ghazi

Times Now reported, “two terrorists of a terrorist outfit, JeM including Abdul Rashid Ghazi have been cornered by the Indian armed forces in an ongoing encounter in Pulwama”. In a subsequent report Times Now changed the mastermind of the attack from ‘Abdul Rashid Ghazi’ to ‘Mohammad Umair’ as well as changed his status from ‘arrested’ to ‘killed’ to ‘cornered’. The report titled originally as Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the mastermind behind Pulwama terror attack ‘killed’ was later edited to Mohammad Umair, the mastermind behind Pulwama terror attack cornered (shown in screen-shot below).

Soon after, several media organizations including ABP News, India Today, India TV, Outlook, Zee News, The Economic Times and others put out reports carrying an image of Ghazi. Turned out the image was morphed using an app on Amazon called Police Suit Photo Frame Maker. The image was morphed on the body of Guilherme Leão, a Brazilian police officer. The morphed image was first debunked by Alt News.

Who is Abdul Rashid Ghazi – as reported by India TV?

On February 16, 2019, India TV News reported the real identity of Abdul Rashid Ghazi. It contained the actual picture of Ghazi. The story was later edited on February 18, 2019. Below are screenshots of what India TV News reported on its website earlier archived from internet archive via Wayback Machine. The same was also tweeted by India TV News. India TV deleted their tweet in humiliation after being ridiculed without giving any apology for lies and spreading disinformation.

• Original India TV News story dated Feb, 16, 2019 (archived): link
• Edited India TV News story: link
• Deleted tweet by India TV: link

Abdul Rashid was a Pakistani fundamentalist and a human rights activist. After taking an M.Sc. in history, he obtained a job at The Ministry of Education in Islamabad, and later worked with UNESCO, a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Ghazi’s father Muhammad Abdullah Ghazi played a major role in recruiting and training Mujahideen. In 1998, Ghazi and his father met Osama bin Laden. A week after Ghazi and his father returned from Kandahar, Ghazi’s father was assassinated. The assassin was arrested after eye-witnesses identified him but was released the very next day without reason.

After Ghazi threatened the police of legal action, a military officer asked him to withdraw the case or face the fate of his father. According to his friend, this was turning point in Ghazi’s life, and he became disillusioned with the system.

By 2001, Ghazi became a Maulana and floated an organization for the defense of Afghanistan against the American invasion. In August 2004, the Pakistan government claimed he was involved in a plot against the president Musharraf, the army and parliament. In 2005 he escaped an assassination attempt.

In 2007, militants kidnapped policemen as well as people they considered to be involved in immoral, un-Islamic activities in the basement of the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Pakistani military launched Operation Silence in which Ghazi was killed after Pakistan Army Special Operations Commandos’ teams stormed the Madrasah he and his students had been using. The Abdul Rashid Ghazi who is being proclaimed by India TV News as the mastermind of Pulwama attack was already killed in 2007.

Timeline of false reporting on Ghazi

• February 15, 2019
  • Abdul Rashid Ghazi is reported as mastermind of Pulwama attack and present in Kashmir valley.
  • First ever photo of Ghazi is tweeted by India TV. It was that of a cleric by the same name killed in 2007. The tweets are now deleted by India TV.
• February 16, 2019
  • India TV publishes the same picture of the guy killed in 2007 as Ghazi – the mastermind. The picture is now deleted by India TV.
• February 18, 2019
  • Almost entire Indian mainstream media publishes another photo of Ghazi. This time it is a morphed photo created from an app.
  • Ghazi is first reported as arrested than cornered and later killed by Times Now.
  • Times Now even tried to changed the mastermind from Ghazi to Mohammad Umair.

Most of India believes the morphed picture of Ghazi created from an app is the original photo of the mastermind of the Pulwama attack. There has not been any apology or clarification on the issue by the media.

Criticism

Air-Transit Rejected

CRPF had requested air-transit for the attacked convoy traveling from Jammu to Srinagar to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) earlier this week. However, the request was rejected by top Government officials.

“We are concerned about our safety in the Valley. Travel between Jammu and Kashmir involves too much risk, why couldn’t CRPF jawans be transported by air or in bulletproof buses?”

– CRPF jawan

“A lot of jawans got stranded in Jammu because of roadblocks due to snowfall. Last convoy movement happened on 4 February. Hence, we wrote to our CRPF headquarters requesting them to provide us facilities to transit jawans by air. But nothing happened. No one bothered to reply to us.”

– Senior CRPF official

“Transit of jawans by air would not only ensure their safety but it will be much faster and cost-effective.”

– Senior CRPF officer

After the senior official, posted in Srinagar, wrote to the CRPF headquarters, as per procedure the request was forwarded to the MHA. He further added that earlier also requests were made to transit jawans by air. But they had never been accepted.

Retired IGP, CRPF VPS Panwar, who had been a convoy commander in the Valley, told The Quint that an attack like this shows complete security failure and that it seems the senior officials ignored intelligence inputs.

On Convoy movement

Kashmir is classified as the world’s most militarized zone as well as the largest region occupied by security forces. To move such a large convoy of more than 70 trucks through a high-risk area like Pulwama should have been avoided.

American military used to do this “large-convoy” thing in the early days of the Afghan War. They got too overconfident after their successes in Gulf Wars and the Serbian War (they forgot lessons learned in Vietnam). The terrorists in Afghanistan took advantage of this by attacking the large convoys using suicide-bombers and explosive-laden-vehicles. They also used to create roadblocks through fake car-accidents, riots, animal-herd-crossings, etc. Then the convoy is a sitting duck which the terrorists used to attack.

The need of the hour is that the CRPF should be provided with bulletproof vehicles and arrangements should be made for their transit by air, especially when so many jawans get stranded during winters.”

– VPS Panwar, retired IGP, CRPF

“Movement of 78 vehicles in a convoy was like a sitting duck for the terrorists. I feel transporting so many jawans together was not a correct decision.”

– VPS Panwar, retired IGP, CRPF

American vehicles at the time were not well-armored; hence, they lost a lot of soldiers in the early years of the war. But, they learned eventually and came up with strategies. The large convoys would be divided into smaller “divisions”. These divisions would take different routes to reach the same destination. The routes were chosen in such a way that in case of an ambush, other divisions are far enough to be safe, but at the same time they are close enough to help those who have been attacked. Also, the armoring of the vehicles and soldiers was greatly improved to deal with this kind of attacks.

Every top-class military or even average ones in the world follow these procedures; be it Russia, Europe, Israel, Chinese, etc. Large convoys are avoided unless they are operating in safe-environment (within the homeland or friendly nations) and/or semi-safe environments (low-and-mild-risk areas). If we consider Americans, they deploy large-convoys only in safe-environments (within USA and NATO region) and in semi-peaceful regions (like Turkey-Syria border where their chances of being ambushed and blown up are nearly zero).

From the perspective of the militants they made full use of an opportunity that presented itself. They achieved their objectives. This was a big win for them (psychologically & technically) which will be used as motivation tool for future recruitment of militants.

Moving so many personnel and equipment to the same destination, using the same route, at the same time should have been avoided. Such a large scale movement usually requires the approval of the higher-authorities (senior-officers of CRPF, Military, Home Affairs Ministry, local IAS/IPS, etc). These higher-authorities should have known better and negligence at this level should be probed.

Intelligence failure

“We were also confused about their real identity because of the Pakistan army and ISI’s code name strategy for terror operations. The ISI deliberately gives various aliases to each terrorist to mislead us. They often use aliases like Abu, Ghazi, etc., which creates a lot of confusion. That is why we don’t really know if there is a terrorist called Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the so-called IED expert who supposedly trained Adil Dar, the suicide bomber,” a counter-insurgency officer said.

The single biggest reason that kept Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar off the radar of the counter-insurgency agencies was the dismantling of human intelligence after Pakistan’s aggressive assault on native informers in the last five years.

According to official documents exclusively accessed by TOI, Adil Ahmad Dar was categorised as a C-grade militant. In other words, Dar was considered by intelligence agencies as the least dangerous in the hierarchy of terrorists. The database, updated in December 2018, also reveals that there was no information about the existence and presence of Kamran and Farhad, the two top Pakistani Jaish commanders killed in a fierce gun battle in Pulwama.

In the case of the two Jaish commanders, security forces kept scrambling about their identity due to lack of intelligence. Officials of all security agencies admit that their own human intel has been in disarray ever since Pakistan’s army and ISI launched an offensive against locals in Kashmir following Burhan Wani’s killing in 2016. In the last three years, Pakistan-backed  terrorists killed over 180 civilians, some of whom were informers, sources said. Officials declined to say exactly how many were informers. “But that did result in weakening of intelligence on the ground,” a highly placed source said.

The massive gaps in the intelligence database has led to the thinking among the security agencies that they may have not analysed the trends in the Valley in the last ten years properly. “None of us really analysed why 2008 to 2010 were the worst in terms of street violence because of stone-pelting and clashes with forces. The years when we thought Kashmir peaceful, 2011 to 2013, actually had been the years when terror groups reorganised themselves and laid the foundation for the new-age militancy. The terror groups recruited massive numbers of overground workers (OGWs). An OGW is always a potential militant but just because OGW is the unarmed and silent part of society doesn’t mean he’s peaceful,” an official said.

Another officer said, “We all happily treated the lull as good administration and effective policing and patted ourselves. But it is evident from the figures that since the hanging of Parliament attack convict and Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in 2013, something changed drastically in Kashmir.”

Isolation of Pakistan

“The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will initiate all possible diplomatic steps which are to be taken to ensure the complete isolation from the international community of Pakistan of which incontrovertible is available of having a direct hand in this act,” said Arun Jaitley, the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs.

Following the Pulwama terror attack, India launched an all-out diplomatic effort to isolate Pakistan on global platforms.

Withdrawal of Most Favored Nation Status

FATF blacklisting

Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies, Pakistan has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by operationalising the integrated database for its currency declaration regime. Pakistan has revised its TF risk assessment; however, it does not demonstrate a proper understanding of the TF risks posed by Da’esh, AQ, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN, and persons affiliated with the Taliban. Pakistan should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies (included in the action plan are 10 different goals). Given the limited progress on action plan items due in January 2019, the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019.

FATF official statement on February 22, 2019

In order to expose Pakistan’s links with terrorism and get it blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) India handed over a dossier, nailing the culpability of Pakistan in the Pulwama terror attack. Security agencies had prepared the dossier with the evidence gathered against the role of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad and the help being provided to the outfit by the country. However, it should be remembered that the National Investigation Agency who took over the case has still not concluded its investigation into the matter.

Headquarters in Paris, FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In 2001 its mandate expanded to include terrorism financing. While, under international law, the FATF Blacklist carries with it no formal sanction, a jurisdiction placed on the FATF Blacklist often found itself under intense financial pressure.

However, dismissing India’s push to blacklist Pakistan over terror funding, the anti-terror financing watchdog, decided to keep Pakistan’s status as it was – on the ‘grey list’ for now. A review will be held with regards to the action-plan provided to Pakistan in May 2019 and depending on Pakistan’s compliance it may be blacklisted or struck off the gray-list altogether.

IOC Suspends Indian Applications

The IOC was informed on 18 February that the Indian government authorities failed to grant an entry visa to the Pakistani delegation comprising two athletes and one official who were meant to participate in the ISSF World Cup. This is a qualification competition for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in which direct quotas are earned by the respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The two Pakistani athletes were due to compete in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, starting Saturday 23 February, in which two quota places are available for the Games.

Since becoming aware of the issue, and in spite of intense last-minute joint efforts by the IOC, the ISSF and the Indian NOC, and discussions with the Indian government authorities, no solution has been found to allow the Pakistani delegation to enter India in time to compete.

This situation goes against the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic Charter, in particular the principles of non-discrimination, as well as the IOC’s and the Olympic Movement’s position, reiterated on many occasions over the past few years, that equal treatment must be guaranteed for all participating athletes and sporting delegations at international sports events, without any form of discrimination or political interference from the host country.

As a result, the IOC Executive Board also decided to suspend all discussions with the Indian NOC and government regarding the potential applications for hosting future sports and Olympic-related events in India, until clear written guarantees are obtained from the Indian government to ensure the entry of all participants in such events in full compliance with the rules of the Olympic Charter – and to recommend that the IFs neither award to nor hold sports events in India until the above-mentioned guarantees are obtained.

IOC press release dated Feb 21, 2019

The International Olympic Committee have suspended all Indian applications to host future events and urged international sports federations not to stage competitions in the country after two Pakistani shooters were denied visas to to take part in a World Cup event in New Delhi.

UNSC setback

As part of isolating Pakistan, India started meeting envoys of the United Nation P5 countries – which includes China – the Gulf, Japan and European nations to brief them about Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terror. The P5 refers to the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) five permanent members – United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France and China.

India appealed to all members of the international community to “support the proposal to list terrorists, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, as a designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council and to ban terrorist organisations operating from territories controlled by Pakistan”.

However, a week later the UNSC rebuffed intense Indian efforts to implicate Pakistan in the terror attacks. Although it was projected as a “BIG VICTORY FOR INDIA”, it was a diplomatic setback. For an entire week Indian diplomats worked tirelessly pushing the Council members to name Pakistan in the statement. Despite these efforts there was no mention of Pakistan in UNSC statement.

The victory was claimed for the naming of Jaish-e-Mohammed in the statement. However, the said terror outfit is already proscribed by the United Nations, which has blacklisted the organization, the fact which was highlighted in a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs itself (check Attribution section).

Water Wars

“When India and Pakistan were divided, three rivers were given to Pakistan and three to India. However, India continuously gave the river water supply to Pakistan, but now we will use that river water supply to nurture the Yamuna river through the Yamuna project.

Our government has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan. We will divert water from eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab. Three of our rivers have been flowing into Pakistan. So water which we rightfully owned was going into Pakistan. Construction of dam has started at Shahpur-Kandi on Ravi river. Ujh project will store our share of water for use in Jammu and Kashmir and balance water will flow from second Ravi-Beas link to provide water to other basin states. Above projects are declared as national projects.”

Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, addressing a gathering in Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh

Union minister Nitin Gadkari in a tweet confirmed that India would stop it’s share of the water supply to Pakistan in light of the Pulwama attack. This was misinterpreted by media as a threat to ‘choke’ the water supply to Pakistan. However, later Gadkari said he is exploring options to block even Pakistan’s share of water. Below we analyze the ramifications of the same.

Gadkari said he asked the water resources ministry to explore options that could block even Pakistan’s share of waters from the Indus system. “I told my department to prepare technical designs of projects on where we can stop even Pakistan’s share of water”, said Gadkari.

Under the leadership of Hon'ble PM Sri @narendramodi ji, Our Govt. has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan. We will divert water from Eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) February 21, 2019

#WATCH Union Min Nitin Gadkari says,"Nirnay kewal mere dept ka nahi hai, sarkar aur PM ke level pe nirnay hoga par maine apne department se kaha hai ki Pakistan ka jo inke adhikar ka bhi paani ja raha tha vo kahan kahan rok sakte hain uska technical design bana ke taiyaari karo" pic.twitter.com/42KgwFrVzk

— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2019

If the diversion of the waters of the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas Rivers designated under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty for India’s use that Gadkari has promised is indeed state policy then there should really have been much greater debate and cogitation within government circles about its regional and international ramifications than has evidently occurred to-date.

Under international law, for a lower riparine country to be denied its legitimate portion of shared river waters can be casus belli — cause for war. Fine, the onus will be on Pakistan to start one, and it is in no position to do so. The trouble is a war for such an elemental reason could quickly spiral into a war of annihilation unlike all the previous wars of maneuver that India and Pakistan have engaged in since 1947.

Damming and diverting the Indus River tributary waters is a matter of life and death for Pakistan – that can, quite literally, turn much of Pakistani Punjab and upper Sindh, in no more than 30 years, into an arid extension of the Thar Desert. The first thing to weigh is whether junking the Indus Waters Treaty is anywhere a proportionate response to the Pulwama provocation. Proportionality — whether anybody likes it or not — is an established central tenet of international law of war.

Secondly, it will immediately gift China the justification for damming and diversion of all rivers originating in the Tibetan Plateau — the Tsang-po (Brahmapurtra River) as also the Indus. Beijing has been more hesitant in building upstream facilities to siphon off water from the Indus because its all-weather friend, Pakistan, is at the lower end of this River.

Assuming Pakistan cannot and will not initiate an all-out war to settle the water issue for once and for all, how long does the Indian government reckon it will be before Beijing, citing the Indian precedent on the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas, orders huge construction projects to redirect the precious Indus waters in Tibet itself and away from its natural pattern of flow south of the Tibetan watershed and into the subcontinent?

What then? What case will Delhi make to mobilize international opinion against the Chinese action? As it is, Delhi has not done anything about the Chinese civil works and dams at the great bend obstructing the Brahmaputra. India will find itself squarely in Pakistan’s position of being unable to prevent diversion. It is this aspect of Indus waters diversion that Delhi has to be most wary of – cautioned Bharat Karnad, Professor for National Security Studies.

Unanswered Questions

Based on our above analysis below are some of the unanswered questions into the Pulwama attack.

1. CRPF had requested air-transit for the attacked convoy which was rejected by top Government officials. Why was the request rejected? Which officials rejected it?
2. On the night of Pulwama attack certain Indian media (Times Now and others) tried to create a fake attack on a police post in Shopian, Kashmir which never even took place. Why did media report a fake attack? What was the source on this incident?
3. The very first photo of the mastermind of Pulwama attack Abdul Rashid Ghazi was reported by India TV. It was of a person by the same name already killed in 2007. What was the source of that photo?
4. The second photo of mastermind Abdul Rashid Ghazi was also fake. It was morphed on a Brazilian police man made using an app reported by entire Indian mainstream media. What was the source of this photo? Who supplied these fake photos to Indian media? Or media acted on their own?
5. Even before the attack the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the US State Department issued a travel advisory for Americans traveling to Kashmir. Did US had actionable intelligence about an attack? If so, was it shared with Indian counterparts?
6. Recently sophisticated American weapons (M4 carbine rifle) were found with JeM terrorists. Even in the video of JeM terrorist claiming responsibility, he is seen with M16 rifle with Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) used in special operations by American Marine Corps and possessed very select nations. How did JeM terrorists got hold of these sophisticated American weapons? Has an investigation launched into this matter?
7. A dossier was sent to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by India with the evidence gathered showing the culpability of Pakistan in the Pulwama terror attack. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) who took over the case has still not concluded its investigation into the matter. What evidence was included in this dossier, even when the investigation is underway? Is this why FATF refused to put Pakistan on blacklist, due to lack of conclusive evidence? Kindly share the dossier in public domain.

See also

• Balakot Airstrike – Forensic Satellite Imagery Analysis
• Pathankot Attack
• 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKS
• Agricultural Terrorism
• Gujarat Riots – The Foreign Hand
• Indian Army: A Fate worse than Death
• How CIA Spies Access India’s Biometric Aadhaar Database
• Nirav Modi & The Smuggling Of National Treasure
• Is India Under Weaponized Biological Attack?
• The Secret World Of Indian Currency Printers
• Is SIMI Infiltrated By Foreign Spies?
• Robbing God: The Smuggling Syndicate of Tirumala Tirupati Temples

Note

This is a wiki page for the Pulwama attack of 2019 and will be updated regularly with relevant information and facts frequently ignored by Wikipedia. If you think we have missed out some inputs let us know in the comments below.

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