Ajit Doval in a spree of visits to Jammu and Kashmir streets

Srinagar: Master strategist that he is, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who is otherwise a behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, is now being seen all over Kashmir, especially in terror hotspots like Shopian, Anantnag and even downtown Srinagar. He is shown chatting away with locals, having lunch with them and cracking a joke or two even as an uneasy calm prevails in the Valley.

While the security apparatus in the Kashmir valley is on edge each time he ventures out in these sensitive areas over the last five days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blue- eyed boy seems to be taking no chances, and is taking his own precautions. Rumour has it that Mr Doval ventures out into the troubled areas only after donning a bullet-proof jacket!

Highly placed sources in the security establishment told Deccan Chronicle that when Mr Doval visited Shopian, Anantnag or downtown, he had on a bullet proof jacket over which he wore his shirt.  Perhaps to conceal it, the top bureaucrat in the country was either seen wearing a blazer or a half coat, which appeared a bit strange considering the hot weather that Kashmir is experiencing.

“Never has an NSA gone out into troubled areas of Kashmir and interacted and mingled with locals. Though there is a lock down and all areas are shut, yet the NSA has to take his own precautions,” is all that a senior police official said, not confirming or denying whether Mr Doval wears a BP jacket when he makes his visits to show that all is normal and safe in the troubled state.

Sources said that in the normal course, Mr Doval does not put on a BP jacket. “But this is an extraordinary situation and all precautions ought to be taken. He is the NSA, we cannot leave anything to chance,” another senior official said.

Mr Doval, a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau and the brain behind many top strategies to counter terrorism including “surgical strikes” on Pakistan, is the man who is said to have prepared the ground for implementing the Modi government’s scrapping of Article 370 and bifurcating the state. Over the last six days, he has been camping in Srinagar, visiting different parts in order to send across a message that all is well.