Mallikarjun Kharge again claims PM Modi had intel on Pahalgam attack: 'Why didn't you tell tourists not to go?'

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday once again claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had prior intel of the Pahalgam terror attack , citing the PM’s cancellation of a planned visit to Kashmir shortly before the April 22 attack.

The Congress president also accused the Modi government of failing to prevent the attack, alleging that the loss of 26 lives was a result of the government's inability to provide security for tourists in the region.

"26 people were killed in Pahalgam because the Modi govt didn't provide security to tourists there. Modi did not go to Kashmir because the Intelligence agencies asked him not to. Why didn't you (Central govt) tell the tourists not to go there (Pahalgam)? If you had told them, 26 lives could have been saved, and this small war...." Kharge said, addressing a Congress rally in Karnataka's Vijayanagara.

At the same rally, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi praised the Congress-led Karnataka government’s welfare schemes, claiming it had kept its promise of providing five guarantees. He also said one lakh families in Karnataka would now receive land ownership rights.

"In the BJP model, if you fall ill, you get drowned in debt. In the Congress model, you have money in your pocket for treatment," Gandhi said, while listing the party’s initiatives on food, electricity, education, and free bus travel for women.

Kharge's remarks come in the aftermath of a terror attack on April 22 in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, that led to the deaths of 26 civilians. India retaliated with missile strikes targeting terror camps across the border under ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7..