A great deal of speculative nonsense characterised commentary in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack at the Nirankari Bhawan in the Raja Sansi area of Amritsar, well before any meaningful investigative inputs were available.

Unrelated intelligence feeds were plugged in to raise the bogey of Islamist terrorism, a much-favoured meme in the current environment where the demonisation of Muslims is a critical instrument of partisan political mobilisation.