On Friday (July 21), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee courted controversy for trying to pass off the 2019 Pulwama terror attack as a ‘staged incident.’ She made the contentious remarks during the Martyr’s Day rally at Esplanade in Kolkata.
At about 14 minutes and 37 seconds into her speech, Banerjee claimed, “I will tell the students and the youth that the BJP is planning to pull off staged events such as Pulwama (terror attack).”
“They are planning to create fake, staged videos like in movies. They will stage dramas, shoot videos and defame Bengal. This is their conspiracy,” she brazened it out.
Martyrs’ Day rally is the annual event of Trinamool Congress. It is held to commemorate the death of 13 Youth Congress workers killed in a police firing in Kolkata in 1993. Mamata Banerjee was the State president of the Indian Youth Congress at the time of the incident.
Pulwama suicide bombing attack and a lesson for Hindus
On February 14, 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to Srinagar via National Highway 44 came under a suicide bombing attack.
A 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Kakapora in Jammu and Kashmir, rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel. 40 of our jawans were martyred.
While India was still mourning the attack, a video of Adil went viral on social media. Recorded prior to the suicide bombing, it gave out a clear message that the Pulwama attack was not just limited to the Indian State but was also an act of vengeance against the Hindu majority.
In the video, the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist dehumanised the Hindu community as ‘Hindustan ka Napak mushrikon‘ (impure idol worshippers of India) and ‘Gae ka Peshab Peene Walon’ (cow piss drinkers).
The selective usage of slurs targeting the Hindu community, which considers cows as sacred, made it clear that the Pulwama attack was not just another case of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. It was also on Hindus, the ‘cow piss drinkers.’