In a very significant development in the terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, a senior police officer of J&K Police was arrested by the state police forces along with two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Davinder Singh, a decorated police officer who had won the prestigious President’s Police Medal on 15th August last year, was arrested near Mir Bazar in Qazigund area of Kulgam District in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, when he along with the two terrorists were travelling in a car. They were reportedly travelling to Delhi.
The two HM terrorists arrested along with Singh have been identified as Naveed Babu and Asif Rather. The trio was nabbed by a J&K police party led by South Kashmir Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Atul Goel. Both the terrorists are from Sophian. Two AK-47 rifles and some hand grenades were found in the Maruti car used by them.
DSP Davinder Singh was currently posted at the Srinagar International Airport. Earlier he was in the anti-hijacking squad of J&K police, and before that a part of the special operations group when the elite force was established. He was posted as an inspector in the SOG, and due to his successful anti-terror operations, he had got an out-of-turn promotion as DSP.
But later he was removed from SOG after there were allegations of extortions against him, and he was suspended from services for some time. After that, he was posted at the police control room and then the anti-hijacking unit.
According to reports, later the police party raided Singh’s house in Shivpora near army headquarters in Badamibagh and recovered one AK-47 rifle, two pistols and three hand grenades. His ancestral house at Tral in Pulwama district was also raided by police. According to police sources, the DSP had taken a leave of four days from Saturday on the pretext of visiting Jammu. Another AK-47 was recovered based on Naveed Babu’s information.
The HM terrorist Naveed Babu arrested along with Singh is also a former J&K police constable. In 2017 he had fled from his duties with two AK-47 rifles and joined HM. He is currently the Hizbul Mujahideen’s operational commander of South Kashmir, the second in command in the area after divisional commander Riyaz Naikoo.
Naveed is expert in making IEDs, and is involved in several terror activities. He is accused of killing 11 non-local truck drivers and labourers in south Kashmir in October and November last year. According to sources, Police were tracking his movements and he was traced when he made a phone call to his brother.
It is important to note that DSP Davinder Singh’s name had come in the 2001 parliament case too, as the prime accused Afzal Guru had taken his name in a letter written to his Supreme Court lawyer Sushil Kumar. In the letter written from Tihar jail in 2004, Afzal Guru had said that he was forced by Guru to take one of the attackers named Mohammad to New Delhi, rent a flat for him to stay and also to purchase a car from him. Afzal had also alleged that Singh and another police officer Shanty Singh had tortured him at the Humhama STF camp. Shanty Singh is currently in jail for shooting down a civilian in police custody labelling him a terrorist.
Afzal had said that a person named Atlaf Hussain, brother in law of Budgam SSP Ashaq Hussain, had brokered a deal between his family and DSP Davinder Singh for his release, and in exchange Singh had asked him to transport Mohammad to Delhi.
