Pahalgam terror attack raises 15 uncomfortable questions for authority

The terror attack in the Baisaran valley area of Pahalgam, southern Kashmir, which left nearly 30 people dead (unofficial estimates of casualties cross 50) and many others injured, has raised some very uncomfortable questions for the establishment comprising the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Bhupendra Chaubey asked two experts, former DGP of the state SP Vaid and former military operations professional Maj Gen Ashwini Sivach, what plagues the system in the video above.

Unanswered questions

There are other disturbing questions, as follows:

1. Did the Union Ministry of Home Affairs underestimate the situation in the valley? Why did Home Minister Amit Shah make the statement in Parliament that all was well post-abrogation of Article 370, amplified by BJP and the media?
2. If Pulwama was a case of intelligence failure, this was a hundred times worse. How did so many attackers end up at one location with weapons?
3. Were the series of attacks in the Valley post-abrogation of Article 370, in which civilians, as well as the Army and police officers, died, underplayed for political reasons?
4. After Pulwama, a retaliation response template has been set. Will this now escalate?
5. Is this attack a sign that there could be a return of serious terror attacks in the Valley?
6. With US VP JD Vance in India and PM Narendra Modi in Saudi Arabia, is the timing more than a coincidence? Do you think the security agencies shouldn't have been extra careful at this juncture?
7. Are there back-channel peace talks that the Pakistan Army and non-state actors want to stall (ref Asif Munir statement)
8. Only men were singled out and killed. What does it signify?
9. Eyewitnesses say attacks went on in the open for more than 20 minutes. Was there no security cover in a sensitive area like Pahalgam?
10. Why did the terrorists ask for their victims' religion? Is this, besides terrorism, not a hate crime too?
11. For how long can tourism remain an excuse for covering up terror attacks? Is this judicious of the government to push tourists into Kashmir to show the situation in the Valley is normal, while it is not?
12. What is the difference between the UPA response to terror and the NDA response?
13. Jammu and Kashmir has an elected government but is now a union territory with the governor as the Centre’s representative and a very strong Army presence. Who is accountable for the failure to prevent this attack?
14. There is a similarity between the Pulwama and Pahalgam attacks. While the then-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had ordered the check posts along the path of the CRPF convoy to be removed, now every Army unit is asked to guard more than a sector each, spreading the Indian forces thin. Is a state government in Jammu and Kashmir detrimental to national security?
15. Finally, if India is convinced about a Pakistani hand in the Pahalgam terror attack, using the Modi government's good offices with the Trump administration, should not Pakistan be declared a rogue state?