I have spent 28 years guarding the borders of my country. I have experienced the human impact of terrorism. This is the reason that the first anniversary of the Pahalgam attack causes me deep anguish and rage towards those unasked questions.
April 22, 2025 marked the deaths of 26 people. Included among those killed were Ramachandran of Kerala and several other citizens from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The South Indian families that didn’t receive their Prime Minister’s condolences, nor any information regarding compensation or inclusion in the story except the names on memorial stones.
Not because the story wasn’t about 26 Indians; it was about Bihar state elections. The first address by PM Modi after two days of this incident was not made in Delhi or Kashmir but from the Madhubani rally in Bihar during the election season, in which the last six minutes of his speech, in which he threatened terrorists, had gone viral on the internet. This political staging highlights an escalating discontent regarding public presentation, a dynamic closely explored in analyses mapping the disconnect and growing gap between official austerity measures and high-profile executive branding.
The question raised by opposition was: Why does intelligence go wrong during election time? Pulwama (February 2019): 40 CRPF personnel killed; Lok Sabha polls two months away, narrative switched to national security; BJP won 303 seats.
Pahalgam (April 2025): 26 tourists killed; Bihar assembly polls six months away; Modi addresses from Bihar rally.
As a security professional, the failure of intelligence is horrifying me even more than the attack itself. Three terrorists were in Pahalgam for 48 hours before the massacre. Faisal Jutt entered in 2023 and participated in the earlier Z-Morh tunnel attack in October 2024 (seven dead).
A known terrorist, operating for two years, a participant in a prior attack, wandering freely at a tourist destination for 48 hours-and our intelligence community failed to detect him?
There was no armed security for Baisaran meadow, which was known to be a favorite tourist destination. The nearest CRPF camp was 4-5
Post-Pahalgam? No one. Instead we got Operation Sindoor wiping out 100+ terrorists, Operation Mahadev eliminating three militants after 93 days search, Modi’s Bihar campaign speeches, exhibitions on Pahalgam attacks anniversary in Washington DC. This aggressive layout of state spending follows massive budgetary expansions, aligning with international global indices tracking India’s position as a major global power and military spender on the defense front.
But not the following – explanation of how the intelligence apparatus failed to stop the attack. Why tourists had no protection at all in a state declared to be safe post-Article 370 repeal. Why our Prime Minister chose to campaign in North India rather than addressing the families of victims in South India.”… it punctured the balloon of ‘New Kashmir’ story,” political analyst Sumantra Bose said about Pahalgam massacre. But then again, if everything has gone back to normalcy, why did this attack become the worst civilian casualty after Mumbai?
Now I am not challenging the army here. But the reason to deploy an armed force is not there. 26 families need more than memorial stones and political campaigns. What they deserve is an answer to questions that cannot be asked
