The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked

A couple days ago, CJI N.V. Ramana said that there has been a decline in investigative journalism. Earlier, newspapers would be responsible for exposing big scandals and speculate scams. However, today journalism has been reduced to politics and sensational headlines. The media is doing more politics than politicians. This is the reality. Over time it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between the truth and a publicity stunt. Every other day there is an actor or an actress involved in a money laundering case or with narcotics. Trial by media is the new trend. Very few police evidence or courtroom dialogues are provided. The news today is the public or the powerful's opinion.

In this new era, Rahul Pandita's book The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur: How the Pulwama Case was Cracked provides a refreshing change. The book explains the plot behind the 2019 Pulwama attack in great depth. The plan to attack 40 CRPF soldiers wasn't a simple one. The arrangement of materials to the making of explosives, the timing of conveys' movement, and the extent of damage, all required planning. It clearly wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing. So who was really behind this? The Pakistani government? ISI? Taliban? The Indian Islamic extremists? or Someone else? How was it planned? The repercussions?

The beauty of this book lies in its simplicity. Rahul Pandita has used simple English with little to no exaggeration. Yet, the details of the attack left me with goosebumps. Further investigation details and descriptions are striking. The reader has no idea what the next page may hold. A mind-boggling must-read.