‘No evidence:’ Former Indian minister exposes Modi govt for falsely accusing Pakistan in Pahalgam attack

India’s former interior minister P Chidambaram refuted the BJP government’s claims regarding Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam attack, stating that “there is no evidence” linking Pakistan to the incident.

In an interview with a local news outlet, Chidambaram raised several questions about major loopholes and failures in the Indian coalition government’s investigation.

"Where are the terrorist attackers? Why have you not apprehended them or even identified them?” The Times of India quoted the former minister as saying.

Furthermore, Chidambaram questioned reports that a few individuals had been arrested for allegedly sheltering the terrorists. He noted that there had been no follow-up or clarification on what happened to these alleged facilitators.

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The minister accused the Indian government of trying to conceal the truth, stating: “We made tactical mistakes during Operation Sindoor.” He added that either the Modi-led BJP government is incompetent or simply unwilling to disclose the facts.

He also raised doubts about the role of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), which he said failed to identify the attackers, their location, or their origin, suggesting they might be “homegrown terrorists.”

“Why do you assume they (the terrorists) came from Pakistan? There’s no evidence of that,” said Chidambaram, while accusing the BJP of displaying narcissistic tendencies and “hiding their losses.” 

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In response, BJP leader Amit Malviya accused Chidambaram of “sounding more like Islamabad’s defence lawyer than the opposition leader of India.”

He claimed that Congress had “once again” given a clean chit to Pakistan. “If Pakistan doesn’t facilitate terrorism,” he asked, “then why do our forces repeatedly confront Pakistan-sponsored attacks?”

Pakistan had repeatedly offered India a transparent investigation into the Pahalgam incident under the supervision of international observers. However, India never responded to the offer and did not allow international experts or diplomats to visit Indian-occupied Kashmir after the attack.

The April 22 attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam sparked intense cross-border tension between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India. While India blamed Pakistan, Islamabad strongly denied the allegations and reiterated its call for a neutral investigation.