Congress demands accountability from Amit Shah over Pahalgam terror attack

New Delhi: The Congress party on Wednesday said categorically that the Pahalgam terror attack was an intelligence and security failure for which the Union Home Minister Amit Shah is responsible and should take accountability.

The party also observed that while the country’s defence forces were one hundred per cent successful, prime minister Narendra Modi failed as a leader. “Operation Sindoor was a complete military success, while Modi failed to achieve its political objective,” said Col Rohit Chaudhry, chairman of the Ex-Servicemen Department in the AICC, while addressing a press conference along with Wg Cdr Anuma Acharya.

‘India gained dominance over Pakistan before sudden ceasefire’

The Congress leaders maintained that the nation’s defence forces had established complete superiority and dominance over Pakistan before the sudden ceasefire was announced, that too by the US president Donald Trump.

Col Rohit Chaudhry said that just as India, under the political leadership of Indira Gandhi and the military leadership of Field Marshal Manekshaw had achieved complete dominance over Pakistan in 1971 and split it into two parts, our defence forces this time had also established similar dominance and could have broken Pakistan into many pieces.

However, he regretted, the current political leadership, led by PM Modi, failed and succumbed to pressure by accepting the ceasefire thrust on us by the United States.

‘PM Modi did not deny Donald Trump claims’

He pointed out that, despite Trump repeatedly claiming that he mediated the ceasefire, there was no denial by PM Modi. He said, the prime minister must speak up and tell Trump that he is wrong, as the country will make its own decisions and will not accept any third-party mediation.

‘Amit Shah must take responsibility’

Referring to the Pahalgam attack, Col Rohit Chaudhry said, Amit Shah must take responsibility as there was complete intelligence and security failure, both of which fall directly under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

He said, normally terrorists strike and retreat within a few minutes. But, in Pahalgam, they had a free run and were reportedly killing people for about 40 minutes, as they faced no resistance from any quarter. He pointed out, Shah had reviewed the security situation just two weeks before the attack and claimed everything was fine. He added, however, PM Modi’s visit scheduled on April 17 was cancelled due to security reasons, apparently after some intelligence inputs. He said, if they had got these inputs, why did they not take any precautionary measures?

Jaishankar informed Pakistan about military strikes

Col Chaudhry also criticised External Affairs minister Jaishankar for providing advance information to Pakistan about the strikes at the start of the operations, saying it was backstabbing our defence forces.

He also demanded that the Agniveer soldiers who were martyred during Operation Sindoor, should be treated at par with regular soldiers in terms of giving respect, honour and compensation without any discrimination.

He mentioned that the impact of the Agnipath scheme on national security is quite adverse and far-reaching. Therefore, he demanded that Agnipath scheme should be scrapped with immediate effect and all ‘Agniveers’ should be confirmed as regular soldiers in the interest of national security.

‘Why have terrorists not been arrested?’

Speaking on the occasion, Wg Cdr Anuma Acharya reiterated the party’s questions on how the intelligence failure happened and why the terrorists have not been arrested so far.

She said, the country wants to know why the ceasefire was announced so suddenly and that too by a third party. She demanded that the May 25 meeting of the NDA chief ministers with PM Modi on the issue of national security should also include the non-NDA chief ministers.

“What is their crime for not being invited to the meeting?” she asked, while pointing out, national security concerns everyone, not just the BJP or the NDA.

Absence of PM Modi

She raised a serious question—if the Prime Minister remained absent from both all-party meetings, does it not indicate that national security is no longer a matter of priority for him?

Jai Hindi Sabha

Congress is going to organise Jai Hind Sabha at 16 locations across the country and present these questions directly to the people in the last week of May 2025.