The news of Davinder Singh’s arrest brings strange hope, of check of wounds, for the eight million people of Kashmir whose memories are alive with the past injustices of the Macchil, Chattisinghpora, Pathribal and Barakpora massacres.
The arrest of Davinder Singh has shaken Kashmir’s complex security grid like never before. He told his interrogators that he was helping the militants he had been with when he was arrested get outside the Kashmir Valley against a payment of Rs. 12 lakhs. The motive and the final destinations of the militants are still not known. But Davinder Singh’s initial confession instantly invoke memories of the Parliament House attack in 2001, which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of an all-out war.
According to a letter written to his lawyer by Afzal Guru, the accused in the Parliament House attack case who was hanged and then secretly buried inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail, it was Davinder Singh, who forced him to take a militant named Muhammad to Delhi. Muhammad was among five Pakistani militants who carried out the attack.
But despite Afzal Guru’s confession to the court, Davinder Singh’s role in the Parliament House attack was never probed. The court only believed the part that Afzal Guru brought Muhammad to Delhi, but not the part that he did so at Davinder Singh’s behest. While Afzal Guru was hanged “to satisfy the collective conscience of the nation”, Davinder Singh remained untouched.