In less than two weeks from now, India will be celebrating its Republic Day in full grandeur once again. It¡¯s a special occasion when India makes a show of its strength and celebrates the virtues imbibed in its Constitution, which was adopted on this very day some seven decades ago.?
It is thus not extraordinary that security concerns become rife almost every year closer to January 26 and elaborate preparations are made in advance. Apart from the national capital, police bandobast is carried out in all major towns and cities of the country and security as well as intelligence units remain on their toes.?
But this time, the threat has come from inside and that¡¯s more worrying.?
A senior Jammu and Kashmir police officer, posted with a strategic department at the airport, was arrested on Saturday for the "heinous crime" of ferrying a lawyer and two terrorists who were being allegedly taken out of Kashmir valley for a possible terror strike.
In a swift operation, police arrested Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh at Mir Bazar in Kulgam district along with terrorists of the banned Hizbul Mujaideen -- Naveed Baba who was its district commander, and Altaf -- besides an unidentified lawyer who was working as overground worker for terror outfits.
Terming this as an exceptional case where a senior police officer was involved in such a crime, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar told reporters that he would be dealt as per the law and the way the police has been treating other terrorists.
"It is a heinous crime and he will be treated at par with other terrorists," Kumar said, adding that all three were being subjected to intense questioning by a joint team from central security agencies as well as the police.
Singh, who was in line for a promotion as superintendent of police later this month, was posted at the anti-hijacking unit at the Srinagar airport. He was under the radar of the police when the plan was being hatched for smuggling out the terrorists, an official said on the condition of anonymity.
Singh's name had also surfaced during investigations for the 2001 Parliament attack when convict Afzal Guru had alleged his role. The probe, however, was in Singh's favour.
The IGP said there was no record of the arrested police officer's involvement in the Parliament attack case as was being reported in a section of the media. "We have no such records and I have no information, but we will ask him about this," he said.
To a question about whether his posting at the airport was a security breach as the officer was also seen with the envoys of various countries who visited the valley earlier last year, Kumar said the police had no information about the officer's involvement till Saturday.
"He was on duty and how could we have stopped him from that as we had no information about his involvement in anything," he said.
While refusing to divulge details of the probe so far, Kumar said that after the news spread about their detention on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway in south Kashmir on Saturday, some militants escaped from a hideout in Shopian.
One of the arrested militants Naveed Baba, who was a police constable and deserted the force in 2017 to join the Hizbul Mujahideen, has been involved in cases of killing of police personnel and civilians, the IGP told a press conference.?
"The police officer (Singh) has worked on several anti-militancy operations. But the circumstances under which he was arrested yesterday when he was driving the car with militants towards Jammu is a heinous crime. That is why he is being treated at par with the militants," the IGP said.
"He has been arrested, has been brought under remand and his interrogation is on."?
The investigation is at an initial stage and I cannot share anything further. The probe is on and we have got several leads which we will not like to share as the operation is on. When this news spread yesterday, some militants escaped from a hideout in Shopian which was eight feet under the ground. It had food items among other things stored there," he said.
One of the most significant aspects of the Indian constitution is ¡°sovereignty¡±, which denotes that India is beyond the control of any internal or external powers and is free to make its decisions and choices. It is because India is a sovereign state that it has stood its ground over the decades and exercised its power in doing whatever it deems fit. Republic Day is a celebration of this virtue but for those who may wish ill for India, this is also an opportunity to strike us where it would hurt the most.
With the arrest of a senior officer, somebody who has been awarded and held in high esteem previously, for ferrying terrorists, of all things, the situation looks murkier than ever before. Security forces are on their toes and intelligence units have also swung into action but more remains to come out in the public domain in the next few days.??