Pakistan's Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Thrusday said that Pulwama was a 'great achievement' under the country's prime minister Imran Khan's leadership.
While addressing the National Assembly on this day, the Federal Minister said that Pakistan has "attacked India after infiltrating its very own land" and that the achievement has been accomplished under the regime of Imran Khan. On a boastful note, Fawad Chaudhry said that all those present ought to take pride in the incident.
It goes without saying that the optics of this statement is bound to come across as... awkward for Pakistan, to say the least.
After a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was blown away by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber in Pulwama's Lethpora on February 14 last year, Pakistan had condemned the attack and denied any connection to it.
The attack had resulted in the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and received widespread condemnation in India and solidarity with the victims and their families.
India had, of course, always blamed Pakistan for orchestrating the attack, the responsibility for which was claimed by the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
Among security quarters, it is widely believed that the JeM is a creation of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Even the BBC News had, in an article published a day later, reported that "the involvement of JeM in the car bombing directly links Pakistan to the attack."
Even the ones claiming responsibility for the attack today were playing a cat-and-mouse game with Indian authorities. Fuwad Chaudhry, who is also Pakistan's federal information minister, had said that the country would "assist" India in taking action against terrorist organisations. Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan had also boldly proclaimed that it is not in the country's interest or policy to provide safe haven to terrorists. He had also asked India for "proof" of Pakistani involvement.
In light of the recent events, the controversial statement by Pakistan's Federal Minister is bound to raise some eyebrows in the Indian and international diplomatic quarters.
