Pulwama Attack: ‘Bus driver Jaimal Singh wasn’t on original roster’

New Delhi: Jaimal Singh, the driver of the illfated bus that was blown up by a suicide bomber in Pulwama on February 14, 2019, wasn’t even supposed to drive that day and was merely substituting for another colleague, says a book.

IPS officer Danesh Rana, who is currently an ADG of police in Jammu and Kashmir, has come out with a definitive account of the Pulwama attack titled ‘As Far as the Saffron Fields’ piecing together the conspiracy behind the strike that killed 40 CRPF personnel.

Based upon personal interviews and other evidence, Rana breaks down the modern face of militancy in Kashmir. Recalling the sequence of events on Feb. 14, 2019, he writes how the CRPF personnel travelling in the convoy started to come in well before the reporting time, before the break of dawn. “After checking the seating arrangements, they boarded the buses. They carried some food packets, fruits and biscuits... Many lowered their windows, while others sat with their hands clasped together inside their jackets to keep warm,” he writes.

Head constable Jaimal Singh was among the last to reach along with the other drivers, according to norm. Drivers are always the last to report; they are allowed an extra half an hour of sleep since they have to undertake a gruelling journey. “Jaimal Singh wasn’t even supposed to drive that day; he was merely substituting for another colleague,” says Rana.

Singh’s job entailed a lot of file-keeping, about the histories of vehicles, etc, and about the nominal roll of drivers and vehicles to be pressed in the convoys. “Head Constable Kirpal Singh from Chamba in Himachal Pradesh had applied for leave because his daughter was to be married. Kirpal had already been assigned the bus bearing the registration number HR49F-0637, and the supervising officer had told him to go on leave after returning to Jammu,” the book says. (PTI)