Pahalgam Terror Attack Intelligence Failure? Shashi Tharoor Cites Israel's Example

Shashi Tharoor said that no country would ever have a foolproof 100 per cent intelligence and added that a country knows only about those terror attacks that are successfully thwarted.

File photo of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Source : PTI

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday spoke on the ongoing criticism over allegations of 'intelligence failure' during the Pahalgam terror attack.

Tharoor said that though there was no 'foolproof intelligence' on the Pahalgam attack, he added that no country ever has 100% foolproof intelligence on terror attacks.    

"Obviously, there was no foolproof intelligence. There was some failure, but the question is whether the inevitable investigation that is required should be the priority now or whether a credible response should be a priority," Tharoor told ANI. 

Tharoor said that there needs to be an investigation and the government should fix the accountability. The Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram also cited the case of Hamas attack on Israel, saying that the "world's best intelligence services was taken by surprise on October 7." 

"But we have got the example of Israel- October 7. The world's best intelligence services, according to everybody, which were taken by surprise on October 7, just two years ago," the MP said.

#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala | On the Pahalgam terror attack, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "Obviously, there was no full proof intelligence. There was some failure... But we have got the example of Israel, the world's best intelligence services according to everybody,… pic.twitter.com/v0SMkULt6i

— ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2025

"My own view is that it seems to me, just as Israel is waiting till the end of the war before they demand accountability and answers, similarly, I think we too should see the present crisis through and then demand accountability from the government," he added.

Shashi Tharoor said that no country would ever have a foolproof 100 per cent intelligence and added that a country knows only about those terror attacks that are successfully thwarted.

"But I don't expect anytime now or in the future that any country will ever have a foolproof 100% intelligence. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't. We will never know about the various terror attacks that were successfully thwarted. We only get to know about the ones that we failed to thwart. This is normal in any nation. I do agree that there were failures, but I do not agree that should not be our main focus right now," Tharoor said.

He said that the main focus of the government should be the crimes that have been committed against innocent tourists, the damage that has been brought to the economy of Kashmir and the damage being done to communal relations within India by the kind of inflammatory communal rhetoric.