Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday claimed that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were “fought on the bodies of our soldiers”, reported PTI.

Malik’s remarks were in reference to the Pulwama attack in February 2019. Forty personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force had died after an explosive-laden car driven by a suicide bomber had rammed into a bus they were travelling in. Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Sunday, Malik said that the Union home minster at the time, Rajnath Singh, would have to resign had there been an investigation into the incident.

“Elections [Lok Sabha 2019] were fought on the bodies of our soldiers and no investigation was done,” Malik said at an event in Rajasthan’s Alwar district reported PTI. “Had an inquiry been done, the then home minister [Rajnath Singh] would have to resign. Many officers would have been jailed and there would have been a huge controversy.”

Malik’s comments come a month after he claimed in an interview to The Wire that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him not to speak about lapses that led to the Pulwama attack in 2019.

He had claimed that the CRPF had asked the administration to provide aircraft to ferry their personnel, because “such a big convoy does not travel by road”. The convoy comprised 78 vehicles that were transporting over 2,500 personnel.

“They only needed five aircraft, but these were not provided to them,” the former governor said. “I told the prime minister on the same evening that this [the attack] took place because of our mistake. If we had provided them with aircraft, this would not have happened. But he asked me to stay silent about it.”