Terror plot on Republic Day: Will the government tell the real story?

Last Saturday, on a tip-off, Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested its Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) from a racing car heading to Jammu. Two wanted and prized Hizbul Mujahedeen terrorists and their helper accompanied him. They were apparently on their way to Delhi to wreak mayhem in the national capital around Republic Day.

What was Davinder Singh doing with two wanted terrorists who were on their way to Delhi? Who were the masterminds that got them together to make the tumultuous national political environment uglier and bloodier? What is the sinister and diabolical plan behind this shady nexus and this dangerous move?

After the Davinder Singh exposure- there’s disquiet amongst envoys that went to Kashmir recently. Davinder being at airport security was handling them and was also seen shaking hands with US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster, who was not allowed to take any aide or security personnel during this trip to the Valley.

The Jammu & Kashmir police has expressed their resolve to treat the cop like a terrorist and get to the bottom of the truth. A team of R&AW, IB and local police will interrogate him. However, uncanny questions and doubts continue to stalk the case.

Why is Davinder Singh so important for the investigations? 

This is not the first time that his name has had a scrap with controversy. He was named by Parliament attack accused, Afzal Guru, who was hanged later for allegedly being an accomplice in what was called as a terror attack on India’s parliamentary democracy.  There were earlier reports that Guru allegedly worked as a police informer and an agent of the intelligence agencies in the shadowy world of the conflict zone of Kashmir. Strangely, despite Guru wanting Singh’s role being investigated, he was allowed to go scot-free. 

How that man was able to enter a highly guarded territory with multiple check-points, armed barricades and CCTVs, and how did he manage to procure such a huge quantity of explosives, remains a mystery.

Guru, who did not get a decent lawyer to defend him at the court, was forced by Singh to drop a terrorist to Delhi and make arrangements for his mobility. This became the reason for his hanging so as to satisfy “the collective conscience of the nation” as Supreme Court worded it to the collective amazement of concerned citizens in the civil society and experts in the judicial and legal fraternity. With a huge army posted on the borders by India then led by the BJP’s Atal Behari Vajpayee, war clouds had gathered in the subcontinent. US mediation apparently prevented it, though it was clear that India and Pakistan were a whisker away from a dirty and dangerous war.

Ironically, Davinder Singh’s conduct was never investigated and he was allowed to be in charge of security and the anti-hijacking squad that was posted at the high-security Srinagar airport. He was also seen in the police team that escorted the envoys that visited Kashmir recently. Before that he was also the DSP at Pulwama where a CRPF convoy was mysteriously blown up by an alleged Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist riding a SUV and carrying a huge amount of RDX. How that man was able to enter a highly guarded territory with multiple check-points, armed barricades and CCTVs, and how did he manage to procure such a huge quantity of explosives, remains a mystery. The chest-thumping of nationalism that followed, espeically led by the prime minister, in an election season full of rhetoric, buried all the practical and logical questions behind this suicide attack which killed scores of Indian jawans. 

Can this government in Delhi be really trusted to tell the nation the hidden and camouflaged truth, however sinister, self-defeating and vicious it might be?

Incidentally, the incident may have changed the course of the 2019 elections as it allowed the Indian government to launch an unprecedented retaliation at the alleged Balakot camp of the Jaish-e-Muhammad in Pakistan that allegedly killed many trainees, though, the international media reported that only one crow was killed. While the attack was confirmed by Islamabad, the casualties were hotly denied.  The Indian government could not confirm the outcome of the attack in Pakistan, but, it surely had positive spin-offs for a beleaguered BJP in the elections.

Indeed, the Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy has been shrouded in mystery. Dhruva Jaishankar, head of the Observer Research Foundation in Washington, and son of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, in a smart observation, had pointed out that Adil Ahmad Dar, who was driving the SUV, had figured in the list of terrorists in the custody of J&K Police. (https://twitter.com/d_jaishankar/status/1096408372293840897/photo/1 ) Analysts also had misgivings on the video where Dar leaves a message before he committed the suicide bombing.

Besides, Davinder Singh’s dodgy presence in Pulwama when the attack took place, what is really causing raised eyebrows is that the probe by the NIA has not really taken off. The premier agency has failed to file a chargesheet in the case even after many months. They have not found the nature of explosives, its source and how it was triggered off. Suggestions are being floated that the evidence was washed away due to the rains next day. There is no demand from the courts, the State or the opposition parties that the probe should be expedited.

Davinder Singh’s conduct was never investigated and he was allowed to be in charge of security and the anti-hijacking squad at the high-security Srinagar airport.

These developments give a new spin to the role that Kashmir has played in the past 20 years in shaping India’s political discourse. Whether it was the attack on Parliament in which Singh has played some role, to the attack on the para-military convoy at  Pulwama, the crisis in Kashmir has been used to feed majoritarian, extremist and nationalistic hyperbole thereby changing the political discourse in the country. On all counts, India’s secular democratic character has been a casualty.

The question is, does this BJP-led government have the will to expose the complicity of Davinder Singh in terror plots? Will it answer the stupefying queries on the Pulwama attack?