Posted by Namita Bhandare:
Days after a series of bombs went off in the Indian Capital’s elite markets, killing 20 and injuring another 90 people, Delhi police had a ‘fierce exchange’ of fire with suspected militants bang in the middle of the city’s Muslim-dominated Jamia Nagar.
Police officials said two suspected militants — including one called Atiq, a suspect in the Delhi (and earlier, Ahmedabad) bomb blasts, were shot dead, one was arrested and two managed to escape. Two policemen were injured in the same encounter. For details on that story click here and here.
In Jamia Nagar, tension ran high as rumours went wild. Journalists reported that local residents in Jamia Nagar were incensed after hearing a rumour that the shootout was staged from one of the localities 18 mosques. Elsewhere, there were questions about whether this was another ‘fake’ encounter Delhi police are notorious for, particularly as the government (and its home minister Shivraj Patil) have come under some severe criticism for its Intelligence failure to prevent the Delhi blasts (and the preceding 13 blasts over the past four years).
Meanwhile, in an earlier post on his blog The Delhi Walla, journalist Mayank Austen Soofi describes Jamia Nagar as Delhi’s ‘rich Muslim ghetto’, home to the Batla House bazaar with all-night henna shops and the world-class Jamia Millia Islamia University.
In front of the university library
Jamia Nagar conjures up the image of either the pristine campus of Jamia Millia University with its parks and ponds, trees and benches, ducks and koyals, or the cramped colonies packed with claustrophobic apartments, uncovered drains, and pot-holed roads. It is one of the city’s many religious-ethnic enclaves, much like Chittaranjan Park (Bengalis) and Tikak Nagar(Sikhs), where Delhi shows its class and religious divides.
Jamia Nagar is a ten-minute drive from one of city’s major business hubs, Nehru Place. Yamuna, flowing just behind Shaheen Bagh, looks surprisingly clean.
And, finally, my column in Mint looks at living under the shadow of death in India’s capital. While political parties seek to score brownie points against each other, life goes on for ordinary people — scared, vulnerable yet faced with the gritty reality of having to survive and make a living.
My younger daughter, aged 13, had laid out the clothes she was going to wear for Sunday’s early morning Terry Fox run. The plan was to get to her school early on Sunday morning where she would join her classmates to run for the cancer awareness-raising event and then round it off with lunch with a group of friends at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Connaught Place.
September 19, 2008 at 3:20 |
I agree, the encounter is fake. to make it look genuine, police even killed one of their own highly decorated senior police officer.
Police, stop bothering innocent patriots!!!
September 19, 2008 at 3:20 |
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September 20, 2008 at 3:20 |
Sac: actually I don’t think the encounter is fake. For one it’s stretching it a bit to imagine the police would sacrifice one of their best officers. Second, if the encounter was fake how do you explain that the guys in the flat fired back at the cops? I’m only making the point that the Delhi police is notorious for faking encounters and that the home ministry is under stress. Thanks for writing in. Namita
September 21, 2008 at 3:20 |
I worked with the elder brother of Atiq (alias Bashir) in the news channel. The same fellow who was featured in HT today. Quite sad.
September 22, 2008 at 3:20 |
Dear all,
I do appreciate ur valuable comments on the said encounter but i request all people willing to post a comment on this story to go through the statements made by our well-reputed DP and match them to the statements made by the police of the states where these terrorist attcks been carried out….one more thing i wud like to suggest is that every body needed to be unbiased before makin a comment… i say it is total fake. an encounter tht has been carried out with a high political drama n i strongly see a foul play into it. being a native of Azamgarh i wud like to inform u all tht the guys who are labelled as masterminds of the blasts tht rocked several cities in India are a mere prey to the corrupted politics. i knew them personally as most of them grew up in front of my eyes, playing nite cricket matches in their hometowns, very humble n innocent guys. i can’t believe rather m shocked n stunned the way DP is maligning the character of Azamgarh. they r shameless people who never think even once before alleging of something. there are millions of questions in the mind of a common public tht need to be answered.
1. if they were terrorist how cum DP raided their rooms and crept in so easily? how childish it is to say tht they were having AK-47 in their bags and imported pistols in their hands while firing at police.
2. DP said two of them escaped during the operation. can any body help me out to make me understand tht how cum it be possible when they were all the palces inside the flat L-18 on the stairs, in the streets, n whole area was covered by DP and moreover there was no way out???????
3. as per our hon’ble Police Commisioner: when Mr. M.C Sharma approached the room and asked them to surrender they fired 8 round at them and in retaliation they fired 22 rounds ..isn’t it surprising tht two of them were shot dead at the spot but Saif who wass arrested later did get even a single scratch on his body?????
4.DP claimed earlier tht Juneid is a 14 year child who is expert in makin Bombs now they r sayin it is Sajid who was Bomb specialist, one of the shot dead.
5. Earlier it was Abul Bashar who was mastermind behind all the blasts carried out in the country now it is shifted to Atif ???? who gonna be the next dear DP?
6. how cum 1st of the 4 bullets hit MC sharma in his bak when he was facing the door????? if the terrorist fired frm inside???
7. why DP keeps changing statements sometimes, they accuse Tauqeer to be behind all the blasts,then it is Atif who was a genius in mastermindin the whole plot, then it Shakeel who use to give ideas nad tricks to Atif, then it is Saquib ????? my God when they r going to stop these fake allegations… anyway, needless to say tht any body who has a common sense wud dfntly condemn this heinous blastin acts but at the same time wud dfntly look forward to get the real proof and evidences against the alleged. or else he is bind to think a foul play…
one more thing i wud like to add… i wonder y this investigation doesn’t consider those who were involved making bombs and caught red handed in Kanpur, the ones who also involved bombin in danded…is it bcoz they were RSS activists or it is bcoz they belong to another religion ????? terrorism has no religion. i ask all the well wishers of our native land to stand against terrorism.
September 22, 2008 at 3:20 |
DELHI ENCOUNTER
Unanswered Questions
‘We feel that there are far too many loose ends in the current story of the police encounter at L-18 in Jamia Nagar. We demand that a fair, impartial and independent probe into the incident be initiated at the earliest to address the raised questions and contradictions of the case.’
Shabnam Hashmi, Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal, Arshad Alam, Others
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A team comprising activists, academicians and journalists visited the site of the police operation against alleged terrorists staying in an apartment in Jamia Nagar in the afternoon of 20.09.2008 (Saturday). Two alleged terrorists Atif and Sajid, along with Mohan Chand Sharma, an inspector of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell died in the operation while a third alleged terrorist was arrested.
On the basis of our interactions with the local residents, eye witnesses and the reports which have appeared in the media, we would like to pose the following questions:
1. It has been widely reported that in early August this year Atif, who is described by the Delhi Police as the mastermind behind the recent terrorist bombings in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, underwent a police verification exercise along with his four roommates in order to rent the apartment they were staying in Jamia Nagar. All the five youth living in the apartment submitted to the Delhi police their personal details, including permanent address, driving license details, address of the house they previously stayed in, all of which were found to be accurate. Though the police is now denying the veracity of the verification form, Mr. Rehman, the caretaker of the flat, has vouched, on camera, that he accompanied Atif to the Police Station for the verification.
Is it conceivable that the alleged kingpin behind the terrorist Indian Mujahideen outfit would have wanted to undergo a police verification–for whatever purpose– just a week after the Ahmedabad blasts and a month before the bombings in Delhi?
2. The four-storeyed house L-18 in Jamia Nagar, where the alleged terrorists were staying, has only one access point, through the stair case, which is covered by an iron grill. It is impossible to leave the house except from the staircase. By all reports, the staircase was taken over by the Special Cell and/ or other agencies during the counter-terror operation. The house, indeed the entire block, was cordoned off at the time of the operation. How then was it then possible, as claimed by the police, for two alleged terrorists to escape the premises during the police operation?
3. The media has quoted ‘police sources’ as having informed them that the Special Cell was fully aware about the presence of dreaded terrorists, involved in the bombings in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, staying in the apartment that was raided.
Why was the late Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, a veteran of dozens of encounter operations, the only officer in the operation not wearing a bullet proof vest? Was this due to over-confidence or is there something else to his mysterious death during the operation? Will the forensic report of the bullets that killed Inspector Sharma be made public?
4. There are reports that towards the end of the counter-terror operation, some policemen climbed on the roof of L-18 and fired several rounds in the air. Other policemen were seen breaking windows and even throwing flower pots to the ground from flats adjacent or opposite to L-18. Why was the police firing in the air and why did it indulge in destruction of property around L-18 after the encounter?
5. The police officials claim that an AK-47 and pistols were recovered from L-18. What was the weapon that killed Inspector Sharma? Was the AK-47 used at all and by whom? Going by some reports that have appeared (see ‘Times of India’, 20.09.08), the AK-47s have been used by the police only. Is it not strange that alleged terrorists did not use a more deadly and sophisticated weapon like the AK-47, which they purportedly possessed, preferring to use pistols?
We feel that there are far too many loose ends in the current story of the police encounter at L-18 in Jamia Nagar.We demand that a fair, impartial and independent probe into the incident be initiated at the earliest to answer the above questions as also any other ones that arise from the contradictions of the case.
Signed/-
Shabnam Hashmi (Anhad)
Satya Sivaraman (Independent Journalist)
Manisha Sethi (Forum for Democratic Initiatives)
Tanweer Fazal (Forum for Democratic Initiatives)
Arshad Alam (Jamia Millia Islamia)
Neshat Quaiser (Jamia Millia Islamia)
Pallavi Deka (General Secretary, JNU Students’ Union)
September 23, 2008 at 3:20 |
I agree with the above statment, there r many loopholes in this story.
if the police is true, they shoul answer these question.
After that incident, every youth in the area is feeling insecure including me, we don’t know, when the police people will come n arrest any body.
most of the people in this jamia area r student from years, n from differnet states,,,our families back home r worried n asking us to come back…
but having a final faith in our indian constitution n our love for india, we r staying back,,hopinf oneday these will end, the real culprite will be behind the bars…