The controversy over the recently released – and immediately withdrawn – film Satluj, set against the backdrop of militancy in Punjab during the 1980s and 1990s, has revived memories of one of the most remarkable stories in Indian journalism. Since the film deals with extrajudicial killings and disappearances, it was blocked from public viewing citing “security concerns” – a vague catch-all which leaves little room for discussion.The late journalist Dhiren Bhagat was among the first to discover how elastic the phrase “national interest” could be. In 1988, he broke a story alleging that RAW was running a covert operation to import arms from Afghanistan. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.On April 24 that year, a consignment of crates arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport. As the crates were being unloaded, a few bullets reportedly rolled out of one of them. Security personnel were alerted, and an X-ray examination allegedly revealed arms, ammunition and even a rocket launcher. Police and customs officials initially believed they had stumbled upon a major cache of terrorist contraband.The story, however, turned out to resemble a plot line today’s audiences might associate with The Night Manager, the thriller based on a novel by John le Carré. The consignment from Kabul was addressed to the director general, communications, Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi, and was declared as containing “communications equipment”. Bhagat discovered that no such post existed in the Ministry of Communications. He even wrote to B.G. Deshmukh, the then cabinet secretary to whom RAW reported, but received neither confirmation nor denial.What surprised Bhagat even more was the silence that followed publication of the story in the Indian Post. He had expected an uproar in parliament and sustained media scrutiny. Instead, there was indifference. He went from one MP’s office to another trying to generate interest, but found little enthusiasm. Only Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora agreed to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha.Bhagat later wrote that his encounters with editors of leading national newspapers and news agencies were even more disturbing. Most chose not to pursue the story and instead carried the government’s denial. All this, he noted with characteristic irony, was done in the “national interest”.Bhagat never explicitly claimed that the arms were meant for Punjab, though he acknowledged that such speculation was widespread. Whether his story was entirely accurate is almost beside the point today. What history has since established beyond dispute is that during the Punjab insurgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Punjab Police adopted the highly controversial “CAT” or “Black Cats” system. Turned militants, criminals and undercover operatives were recruited to infiltrate Khalistani groups, gather intelligence and participate in counter-insurgency operations, many of which later came under the cloud of allegations of fake encounters and extrajudicial killings.Also read: ‘Satluj’, Now Withdrawn From OTT Platform, Has the Scope of a Novel and the Restraint of a PoemAmong the most notorious of these “Black Cats” were Gurmeet Singh Pinky, a surrendered militant later prosecuted in a murder case; Balwinder Singh Billa, who figured prominently in police operations in the Majha region; and Swaran Singh, another surrendered militant who worked closely with the police. Human rights organisations in India and abroad repeatedly questioned these methods, documenting allegations of disappearances, illegal detentions and custodial killings. Yet, the police brass of the time was never formally censured for these excesses. Their strategy was credited by many with ending the insurgency but others regarded as a grave assault on the rule of law.That brings us back to Satluj. The film tells the story of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who painstakingly documented thousands of illegal cremations and disappearances during Punjab’s darkest years. For his efforts, he was abducted and murdered. His story is no longer a matter of allegation; it has been affirmed by the courts.Also read: ‘I Challenge the Darkness’: Diljit Dosanjh Reacts to Takedown of ‘Satluj’That is what makes the controversy surrounding Satluj so revealing. More than three decades after the guns have fallen silent, Punjab’s insurgency remains a chapter the Indian state is reluctant to revisit. Dhiren Bhagat’s story was buried in the name of “national interest”. Khalra was silenced after asking inconvenient questions. Today, a film that seeks to revisit that period has been withdrawn over “security concerns” – another phrase that often serves as a polite substitute for avoiding uncomfortable conversations.Governments change. Parties change. The vocabulary changes too. Yesterday it was “national interest”; today it is “security concerns”. But the instinct remains remarkably constant: when history becomes inconvenient, the first casualty is not merely truth – it is memory. And perhaps that is precisely why Satluj matters.Asif Ullah Khan is a Jaipur-based journalist.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click .