By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: There is something more than that meets the eye in the Jamia Nagar police encounter case and that’s why civil rights groups and human rights organizations are visiting the area and tying to get the true picture by talking to neighbours and eyewitnesses.
Of all what is most disturbing is that those described as terrorists by the police have valid rent agreement and submitted a form with the Jamia Nagar Police Station for the verification of their credentials.
According to the rent agreement and police verification form (a copy of the documents are with TwoCircles.net), Atif Ameen, who was killed in the encounter, had got the flat on rent in his name. The rent agreement was signed on August 25, 2008. The police verification form says there were six people living in the flat. They are Atif, Zeeshan Ahmad, Md. Saif, Md Sajid (24 years), Md Khalid and Md Sajid (20 years).
People say if they were terrorists, why would they seek their verification?
Human rights activists visiting the Jamia Nagar
Finding some loopholes in the police version of the encounter on Friday (September 19), some human rights groups have visited the area and talked to locals and neighbours to get the whole picture.
Today around one dozen senior civil activists from various human rights organizations visited the area and also the building L-18 in Batala House, near Khalilullah Masjid in Jamia Nagar area.
The police did not allow the team to go into the building.
They talked to 12-15 people and remained there for around 2 hours. Several questions and doubts came up during the talks. The most doubtful is the escape theory of the police. The team made a round of the building and found it impossible for one to escape when there are policemen at the gate, the only exit of the building.
The team members also met families of Sajid and Atif, two alleged terrorist killed in the encounter. The families have reportedly demanded fair enquiry into the encounter. One of the team members told TwoCircles.net that the family members said they would not question the encounter if their children were found involved in terrorist activities.
The committee will come up with a report on the visit in a day or two. The team comprised Prof. N K Bhattacharya, Prof Ish Mishra, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, Advocate N D Pancholi (two from PUCL), Shahna from PUDR, Md Mahtab Alam from APCR and representatives from Janhastakshep.
Also,On September 20 a team of civil rights activists, academicians and journalists under the leadership of noted social activist Shabnam Hashmi visited the site of the police operation against alleged terrorists. 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 Saif was arrested from the building.
According to a statement by Hashmi, on the basis of the team’s interactions with the local residents, eyewitnesses and the reports which have appeared in the media, the team posed the following questions:
1) It has been widely reported (and not refuted by the Police) 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.
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?
L-18 building of Jamia Nagar
2) The four-storey 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 possible, as claimed by the police, for two alleged terrorists to escape the premises during the police operation?
The only exit point of building L-18
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?
The team felt that there are far too many loose ends in the current story of the police encounter at L-18 in Jamia Nagar. They demanded a fair, impartial and independent probe into the incident at the earliest to answer the above questions as also any other ones that arise from the contradictions of the case.
The team included social activists Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal, Arshad Alam and Pallavi Deka.
[Photos by TwoCircles.net]