No intel failure in Pulwama: Govt in RS

There is no failure of intelligence in the Pulwama attack in February in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Asked whether the reasons of Pulwama terror attack was a failure of intelligence, Minister of State for Home, G Kishen Reddy simply said "No" in a written reply. The query was raised by Syed Nasir Hussain, a Congress MP from Karnataka.

Another question said that if it was not an intelligence failure, how the bomber's car joined the highway from a slip road with around 300 kg of explosives, Reddy said that Jammu and Kashmir are affected by terrorism sponsored and supported from across the border for the last three decades.

"However, owing to the policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism and sustained an action against the terrorists by the security forces, a large number of terrorists have been neutralized during the past few years. All agencies are working in a coordinated manner and the intelligence inputs are shared among various agencies on a real-time basis," he said.

The investigation by NIA into the Pulwama attack so far has resulted in identifying the conspirators, suicide attacker and the vehicle provider, he added.

The MHA's assertion came even as the Opposition has been questioning the government on the attack.

Forty CRPF personnel were killed when the suicide bomber, suspected to belong to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), rammed his car into the convoy of security personnel in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.