Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today launched a scathing attack on the government during the Operation Sindoor debate in Parliament, questioning the intelligence failure that led to the Pahalgam terror attack and why a popular tourist destination was left completely unguarded.
“The Defence Minister spoke for an hour. Other ruling party MPs spoke too. Everything was spoken about, from Operation Sindoor to terrorism to national security to history. But one subject was skipped. On April 22, 2025, when 26 people were killed in front of their families, how did this attack happen, why did it happen?” she said.
The government, Ms Gandhi said, had been claiming that terrorism had ended in Kashmir and asking people to visit the Valley. “Shubham Dwivedi and his family decided to go to Kashmir. He married 6 months before that. On April 22, the weather was nice at Baisaran Valley. Many tourists reached there. The children were playing on a trampoline, someone was ziplining, someone was having tea and someone was enjoying the scenic beauty. And then four terrorists come from the jungle and kill Shubham in front of his wife. For the next one hour, they identify 25 others and kill them.”
Quoting Shubham’s wife Aishanya, Ms Gandhi said, “I saw my world end. There was not a single security guard. The country and the government had abandoned us there.”
“Why wasn’t a single soldier deployed there? Did the government not know that 1,000-1,500 people go there every day? There was no security, no first aid. These people went there sarkaar bharose (after trusting the government) and the government left them bhagwan bharose (to God’s grace),” the Wayanad MP thundered.
Ms Gandhi asked if the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA are not responsible for Indians’ security. “Two weeks before the attack, the Home Minister went to Kashmir and said terrorism had been defeated. And three months after the attack, the Lieutenant Governor casually says he takes responsibility for the security lapse in Baisaran Valley. And the matter ends there. No one asks any question.”