Pulwama Attack: Why was intel input of IED attack sent to CRPF ignored?

An intelligence input by the Kashmir Police Inspector General was sent on February 8 to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Army and the Air Force warning of a possible IED attack.

The question which arises is that why despite the warning, the 78-vehicle convoy carrying 2,547 CRPF personnel was allowed to cover a 270-km stretch from Jammu to Srinagar?

The terror attack, which took place in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14, was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The suicide bomber, a 22-year-old, was a local militant and he rammed his explosive-laden car into the CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

The intelligence input, which was marked “Extremely Urgent”, asked all security agencies to “sanitize areas properly before occupying your place or deployment as there are inputs that IEDs could be used.”

The letter, accessed by news agency IANS, was marked to the Deputy Inspector General of Central Reserve Police Force, South Srinagar; DIG CRPF, North Srinagar; DIG CRPF North Kashmir, Baramulla; DIG CRPF South Kashmir, Awantipora; DIG CRPF South Kashmir, Anantnag; DIG Sashastra Seema Bal, South Headquarters (Special Operations) Kashmir and all Senior Superintendents of Police of Kashmir zone.

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The Inspector General, CRPF, Kashmir operations sector, IG CRPF, Srinagar sector, IG Border Security Force Headquarter Kashmir, all range Deputy Inspector Generals of Police of Kashmir zone, Brigadier General Staff (operations) at the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, the DIG Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Air Force, , the Commandant Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and SSP, Armed Police, Control Room Srinagar were also shared the information.

The CRPF bus, which was the main target of the militants, was completely destroyed while another CRPF vehicle was partly damaged.

“It is difficult to believe how anyone in that bus could have survived,” IANS quoted a police officer as saying.

The Pulwama attack in the worst attack and comes after one and a half years after the September 18, 2016 Uri attack, where in the army base camp was attacked by terrorists leaving 19 soldiers dead.