By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Demanding judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter by a sitting judge of Supreme Court, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group, an independent organization of faculty members of Jamia Millia Islamia, took out a march to Parliament from Jantar Mantar today in Delhi.
Despite the demand by several human rights organizations, intellectuals and Jamia Nagar residents, the Congress-led UPA government has not moved an inch from its first day stand that the encounter was genuine. This despite several holes exposed by the media in the police version of the encounter in which two suspected terrorists and Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma were killed on September 19.
One of the slain suspected terrorists was Jamia student. Several people were picked up from the locality in connection with the Delhi bombings; two of them are Jamia students.
The Jamia teachers’ group has already organized a public hearing on the issue. The jury of the public hearing that included novelist Arundhati Roy, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, human rights activists John Dayal and Swami Agniwesh have already demanded judicial probe into the encounter.
To ensure that their voice reach the corridors of power, the teachers’ group held this citizens’ march to Parliament today.
Addressing the marchers Manisha Sethi, covenor of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group, said what happened in Batla House was just an example of communal witch-hunting being carried out by government agencies across the country. Condemning illegal picking of Muslim youths from Jamia Nagar locality, she said this has wrecked havoc in the area. She expressed concern over targeting of Muslim youths in technical field. The Maharashtra Police have recently arrested some Muslim youths in connection with the Indian Mujahideen. Many of them are highly qualified technical professionals.
Noted human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi said the Jamia incident was a part of political conspiracy. She criticized the government for taking action against Hindutva forces that have been found involved in several bombings in the country.
Marchers were holding several placards and banners. Some of them read: Special Cell Equals License to Kill, Stop Arresting Innocents, Stop State Terror, Stop Communal Witch-hunting and Why is the Government Afraid of Judicial Probe?
Later addressing the pressmen, Manisha Sethi lambasted the government for maintaining double standard while it comes to tackle terrorism. While a Delhi High Court tribunal acquits SIMI for lack of evidence, the government is not moving against Hindutva organizations whose hands in several blasts including in Nanded, Malegaon and Kanpur have been confirmed, she said. She also criticized the government for taking easy the communal violence in several states in which Hindutva extremists have been found involved. She also came down heavily on political parties for trying to take out political dividends of the Batla House issue because these parties were silent for almost a week after the encounter. But when human rights groups and locals raised voice against the encounter, they came out, she added.
Reacting on the foiled kidnapping of a Muslim youth by Noida Police in Shaheen Bagh area on October 16, Manisha said the public resistance to the police attempt to pick the youth has given a signal that now for any police team or Special Cell sleuths – particulary in plainclothes and in a van with no number plate – it will not be easy to pick any from the Jamia Nagar locality.
The teachers’ group handed over a memorandum to the PMO. The memorandum includes some demands which include judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter by a sitting judge of Supreme Court and shifting of investigation into the case from Special Cell to the CBI.