'...'Framed As A Terrorist: My 14-Years Struggle to Prove My Innocence' is a heart wrenching book by Mohammad Aamir Khan written with noted human rights activist Nandita Haskar. The book was published in 2016, making this review a little late in day, yet I share this book review with you because 'Framed As A Terrorist....' is not only a personal account of immense struggle, pain and survival, but it is a profound and eye-opening commentary on working of Indian criminal justice system and Indian judiciary.
'Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2020 here on Thursday, chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat pointed a finger at nations that sponsored terror and urged the international community to isolate them. But he also suggested a controversial remedy for dealing with Kashmiri children influenced by “radicalisation”: that they be “put in de-radicalisation camps”. “Terrorism is here to stay so long as there are states that will sponsor terrorism and use terrorists as proxies, make weapons and funding available for them.
Davinder Singh is a man with a past. He is a self-confessed torturer. Most famously, he tortured Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013 for the 2001 Parliament Attack. Singh's own words during a subsequent interview suggest that he probably tortured many others - this was essentially his job in the SOG (special operations group) at the time. Apart from torture, he was also accused of being directly involved in terrorism. In 2004 Afzal Guru had, in writing, accused Davinder Singh of making arrangements for the parliament attack, specifically of tasking him with taking one of the attackers to Delhi and arranging his accommodation. Remarkably, Singh's possible involvement in such a major terrorist atrocity was not investigated following this accusation.
'Without a doubt, the arrest in Kashmir of Deputy Superintendent of Police Davinder Singh as he was escorting two suspected militants in a car along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, en route to Delhi, has to be one of the biggest stories on the national security front in months, if not years. And as the man who advises the prime minister on national security, Ajit Doval, I’m sure, has been thinking of nothing else the past 48 hours
'In one of the most sensational stories to have come out of Kashmir in recent times, a police officer was arrested on Saturday along with two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, one of whom is wanted for killing migrant workers. Davinder Singh is a deputy superintendent of the Jammu and Kashmir police. He has served as a counterinsurgency specialist for nearly two decades and has been awarded a gallantry medal... Normally, a story of this import would be picked up by leading TV news channels on primetime, especially our nationalist news anchors.
'Afzal Guru had in an affidavit named J&K police officer Davinder Singh as setting him up to take a Parltt Attack accused "Mohammad" to Delhi, rent a flat & buy a car for him. Singh is now said to have been "caught with Hizbul terrorists on way to Delhi"... Davinder Singh admitted he tortured Afzal. Afzal was hanged for doing what Singh coerced him to do. Today Singh is said to be caught "headed to Delhi with terrorists". Who protected Singh? Who are Singh's shadowy bosses? Why wasn't Singh's role in Parltt Attack ever probed?...'
'On Saturday, a private vehicle with four men in it was flagged down at a police checkpoint on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway in South Kashmir. Two of the men in it were Hizbul Mujahideen militants, one of whom is wanted for killing migrant workers in South Kashmir in recent months. The third man is described by the police as an “overground worker” – the term for non-combatant members of militant groups tasked with logistics. The fourth man was a deputy superintendent of the Jammu and Kashmir police, Davinder Singh.
'A Jammu and Kashmir police officer decorated with the President's medal for bravery was caught on Saturday with two terrorists, travelling in a vehicle on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway. The terrorists were on their way to Delhi, police sources said. Davinder Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police posted at the sensitive Srinagar International airport was caught at Wanpoh in the Kulgam district with Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Naveed Babu.
'The Bhartiya Janta Party took a large donation from a company that is now being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for facilitating “terror funding,” financial declarations by the BJP itself reveal. RKW Developers Ltd, a company at the heart of a probe by the ED for carrying out transactions with and buying properties from the late Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi – an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and a close aide of mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim – gave money to the ruling party, according to the BJP’s filings with the Election Commission.
'Terror-accused MP Pragya Singh Thakur has been nominated to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Defence. According to reports, the Bhopal MP will be part of the 21-member consultative committee, which is headed by defence minister Rajnath Singh. Singh is an accused in the Malegaon blasts case. She was fielded by the BJP against Congress leader Digvijaya Singh in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, calling her nomination a “satyagraha” against “false terror cases”...'
