J & K Police’s ‘Terrorist Friend’

This is a shocking story that was unfolded in the last couple of days, a story about how national security of this country was compromised, and story about a “Decorated” cop who turned out to be friends of TERRORIST IN KASHMIR. Deputy Superintendent of Police Mr. Davinder Singh who was arrested while ferrying two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists has now allegedly admitted that he took 12 Lakh rupees from these terrorists to take them from Kashmir to New Delhi. Intelligent sources say the terrorist planned to carry out attack on Republic day, focus is not the terror plot the focus is that how come a cop was helping them, how come a cop got away with this for so long, how come a cop took money and was helping terrorist in Jammu & Kashmir. Who is this man? And the number of times we may have ignored the Red Flags the warning signs about this cop. Davinder Singh on 10^th of January his conversation with District Commander of Hizbul Mujanideen was intercepted, this is how he was caught, the entire operation was monitored by the D.I.G. of South Kashmir. On 11^th of January D.S.P Davinder Singh’s car was intercepted based on specific intelligence, his car was intercepted at Jammu & Kashmir’s kul gaon area, D.S.P. Davinder Singh was in that car with two terrorists, as he was caught police carried out raids at various places including his residence and from the car as well as from his residence a significant amount of emulation including an AK Riffle was seized. How DSP Davinder Singh actually managed to stay of the radar while being in very sensitive positions and postings and sensitive locations in Kashmir while actually being part of Counter Insurgencies teams, while actually being part of the Counter Terrorism teams, while actually being part of the Anti Hijacking team linked till Srinagar Airport, this man has been caught as a friend of terrorist. There were Red Flags that were actually ignored, there was Red Flag No. 1 – An Internal enquiry had found him selling Contraband and the move to dismiss at that point of time was actually stalled.

Red Flag No. 2 – He was accused of extortion when he was posted in Budgam, at that point of time when departmental probe took place he was send back to police lines, but nothing happened.

Red Flag No. 3 – He was accused of wrongdoing in Pulwama and at that point of time rather than throwing him out of the force he was transferred to the Anti Hijacking Unit.

Red Flag No. 4 – He was actually named by Afzal Guru in a letter and that role was never probed in detail.

What this really means? & How is it possible hat we ignored all of these warning signs? The answer’s are discussed with Anuradha Bhasin (Executive Editor of Kashmir Times) from Jammu, Satish dua (Commander in Kashmir) retired as a chief of integrated defense staff, Maroof Raza (Strategic Affair Expert & consulting at to the times network), Mr. B.L. Vora (Former DGP.), Vinay Tiwari (Managing Editor).

• You’ve researched in detail about this policeman, and the number of times the system seems to have overlooked, what he could be doing.

Vinay Tiwari – Yes, and I think one of the things that worries me more in this case is not what’s actually coming out but what’s possibly being hidden, and I think in more than one terror attacks specially the headline grabbing terror attacks that we’ve seen in India, while we’ve been very good in investigating perhaps the external link, we’ve been lacked sometimes in diligent, ignorant of probing sometimes internal link. Now one of the narratives that is coming out of Jammu & Kashmir which is logically sometimes correct, this case doesn’t seem to be so as at least till now there is a concept which the SOG. or the other Anti Terrorist you own is in the police use which is of somebody being a double agent, but in this case this officer role right from the time he joined as sub-inspector in 1990 till now has had many Red Flags. And I suppose and I suspect that its not just about this officer but the supervisory officers who control and handle important officers, their role is also a little suspect in this case because clearly there had been more than one instance where this officer has done many thing, the Afzal Guru letter that has been mentioned in this case he was not mentioned once but twice in that letter, there was once off course where Afzal Guru writing letter to his lawyer saying that he made me the person to ferry one of the people who got killed in the attack, but he (Afzal Guru) also tells to his interrogators that this officer was the one who interrogated him and tortured him the most. In fact Davinder Singh’s reputation in the valley is of somebody who was an ace interrogator, this was something he used to boast about “that any terrorist that I interrogate and comes out clean has to be clean person because I am the best”, now clearly Davinder Singh or who Davinder Singh is more than what we’ve heard, there is clearly something much more to this officer but its not coming out. But I strongly believe that your war against terror, your was against insurgency needs to also look inwards, maybe one oddball black sheep but those oddball black sheep can prove to be very critical in sensitive times.

• Yes, in fact you’ve also mentioned the letter by Afzal Guru, this is an exert of what has been published by the print and Afzal guru in this letter says “Then they took me to Humhama STF camp where DSP Davinder Singh also tortured me one of his torture inspector as they call him Shanty Singh electrified me naked for three hours, made me drink water while giving electric shocks through telephone instrument” here is the operative part “ultimately I accepted to pay them 10 Lakh rupees for which my family sold the gold of my wife even after this they could only manage 80,000 rupees, then they took the scooter too which was just 2 to 3 months old which I had brought for 24,000 rupees, thus after getting 1 Lakh rupees they let me free” then he goes on to paint sympathetic picture for himself and how broke he is. But the fact being that he was a dirty cop for a long time in this lead and these allegations were, perhaps they were probed and at some point somebody came in and said “let it be” Maroof what’s your own reading of this, how is it that the man of whose been in controversies every few years has still been in the system and been part of crucial teams? 

Maroof Raza –Well you know, Historically people who have these kind of double personality or have dubious intentions, one thing they have is very good PR skills and therefore they are able to get around all those around them and project an image about them as to their superiors as somebody who’s reliable collogue and who can deliver again and again to their juniors as somebody who is more loyal to the crown than anybody else, but I think there are one or two other aspects that we need to touch upon one is that DSP Singh has 4 properties in Jammu & Kashmir so he has 2 houses in Srinagar, 1 house in Tral, 1 house in Jammu, now unless those houses are shacks obviously he is been doing quite well for sometime and any superior officer if he knew about the assets he had and having 4 houses is normally something that police officer and an honest police officer can boast about, so where did he get those from? Where were the assets coming in unless he is traditionally a landlord or what have view. The second thing about him which seems very unusual is that he was repeatedly trusted with some of the most sensitive appointments, recently the delegation of foreign envoys that was there in Srinagar, there is a photograph available on the internet where he is standing with them, now if the man had links with terrorists and wanted to show India an ‘Bad Light’ he could’ve done anything, please remember that some of the most trusted police personnel providing protection to Mrs. Gandhi finally assassinated, this is the same kind of story that comes out again and again that it is not necessarily that you should be looking for people with links to terrorists only in one community. What you are least suspicious about could be the most important link the terrorists have with the organization and the one difference in Gen. Dua will bear me out on that because having been Co. Commander with extensive experience in Jammu & Kashmir, while the military still operates within the civilian populist in insurgency areas the ability or the historical links of the military with the civilian population and the administration is still very officious, whereas the police is the go between the military and the civilian population and therefore neither lives in secluded cantonments, neither operates completely in a structured environment like the military and the army does but they have a lot of flexibility in terms of getting and reaching out to those terrorist groups with links, and I am not for a moment casting expressions on the intentions and capabilities of the Jammu & Kashmir police, which I am told has over the years matured into a first class Anti Terrorism Force, but there are elements there which are not bound above the barbed wire of cantonments and therefore they are able to engage with a host terrorist, like in this case these guys stayed at his house, he was driving them down, 2 of them had prices of 15 to 20 Lakhs on their head and obviously this guy was playing the big game. And I don’t think it is just 12 Lakh.

• The point that you made is exactly that, the reward on these guys was bigger than what was being paid to the cop, either he has been in this for a long haul and he frequently gets paid which is why the 20 Lakh wasn’t a bigger drive for him and the 12 Lakh was because he is part of this system. And the latest P.T.I. Report also says that he had ferried the same guy Naveed Babu even last year, so he had been helping one of the biggest terrorist right now Hizbul terrorists in Kashmir he had been helping him at least the last 1 Year. General Dua, for people outside of Jammu & Kashmir to understand the gravity of this, the fact that this was the man who was the part of Counter Insurgencies Operations and Anti Hijacking Teams just makes it a lot more concerning, how is he working in such close quarters and still getting away? Is there an oversight of these team members, people who become part of such important operations?

 General. Dua – I totally agree with you that somebody who is working in the system exactly as Maroof said, while Jammu & Kashmir Police has become a very fine operational source over the years, we must also remember that people have to cultivate sources so they come in contact with a lot of other side, as we heard earlier he was talking about the double agent issue, the point is when someone tries to cultivate sources there is a lot of interaction with the other side and some these guys actually have gone extreme, he obviously is one of them there were several Red Flags so many incidents several charges against him over the years, but I would also put it this way that it is his own force that has tracked him down, that has eventually nabbed him also very promptly, the DIG had moved personally without any full protection, without full arrangements, because they really wanted to nab him. So the point I’d like to make is true that this man has somehow, like Maroof said has managed to win trust again and again with PR skills etc. But it is very heartening to know that the same system has actually caught him.