Pakistan's Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry has called the dastardly Pulwama terrorist attack "a great achievement" of the Islamic nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
40 jawans of Central Research Police Force (CRPF) were killed after an explosive-laden van rammed into a convoy on the national highway in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir in February last year.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Chaudhry gave credit to PM Khan and his party PTI and hailed the terrorist attack as a "success". "Humne Hindustan ko ghar me ghus ke maara (We hit India in its own territory)," he boasted in the Pakistani parliament.
"Our success in Pulwama under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan is an achievement of our nation. We are all part of that success," Chaudhary said.
What prompted the bragging?
Fawad Chaudhry was reacting to a statement by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq who, in the National Assembly, said that legs of the Pakistan Army chief were shaking and he was sweating in a meeting called to discuss the captured IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.
"When Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa came to meet foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for a meeting, his legs were shaking and there was sweat on his forehead. Qureshi told him to let Abhinandan go for god's sake as India was about to attack Pakistan at 9 PM," Pakistan MP Ayaz Sadiq had said in the National Assembly.
Days after the Pulwama attack, the Indian Air Force (IAF) had destroyed a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan in retaliation and killed several terrorists the early hours of February 26, 2019.
In the ensuing fight dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter planes, Abhinandan Varthaman downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan before his jet was hit and he was captured in Pakistan. He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.
The comment of the Pakistani minister is an admission of the involvement of the Pakistan government in the killing of CRPF jawans, something Pakistan and its Prime Minister Imran Khan had been dismissing of.
