By Salman Sultan, TwoCircles.net,
Azamgarh: It was just a moment to pull trigger to gun down two Muslim youths (one of them a teenager) on 19th September 2008 in a flat (L-18) of Batla House, New Delhi but it has taken more than a year in framing charges for the accused held in jails of different states of our country. To add salt to the wound Police statement keeps on changing like shifting sands.
Earlier, it was Atif who was alleged to have fired at Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma but now the blame has been shifted to an alleged absconder Shahzad who in spite of heavily fortified Batla House locality gave slip to our efficient Police cordon. The legal battle is about to begin in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur with several FIRs against each accused. In Delhi Session Court, charges framed by the prosecution will be argued on 27, 28 and 29 of this month. The hapless families of those who lost lives and who are incarcerated, as a result of this seemingly fake encounter, find themselves helpless to defend in view of enormous expenditure involved. However, they must fight the legal battle at least for restoring their own reputation, the reputation of their district Azamgarh and the reputation of a whole community that was shamelessly maligned with unbridled malicious and downright repugnant media propaganda.
Association for Welfare, Medical, Educational and Legal Assistance, Azamgarh, which is working at a low profile for alleviating the sufferings of general mass, decided to apprise people in Azamgarh about the present state of affairs vis-à-vis Batla House tragedy. As honourable courts of our country are dispensing justice, witnessed in recent acquittals of Muslim clergies arrested in 2005, it is worthwhile to repose faith in judiciary and fight the legal battle with full preparation.
AWMELA delegation (Dr. Javed Akhtar, Dr. Fakhre Alam, Dr. Wahid Ali, Dr. Kamaluddin, Dr. Javed Ali Khan, Dr. Salman Sultan and Mr. Tareeq A. Khan) first went to inquire about the health of Mr. Ahsan Khan, who is on a protest hunger strike in the Civil Hospital, Azamgarh. Mr. Ahsan’s demands included enquiry into seemingly fake Batla House Encounter apart from release of enquiry report in the case of Hakim Tariq Qasmi and Khalid Mujahid, illegal occupation of a graveyard by Mr. Ram Ashrey (former minister), permission for religious sacrifice in Lohra, Azamgarh and transfer of S.O. Saraimeer.
AWMELA visits Ahsan Khan on hunger strike
AWMELA proceeded to village Bankat on the Azamgarh-Gorakhpur road where it was received by Mirza Ajmal Husain, Abdul Mannan (Regional Rural Bank) and Jairam Yadav (RRL).
AWMELA in village Bankat
AWMELA then moved to village Ballia and had a detailed discussion with Mr. Abdul Rahim Khan, Abu Saad, Mirza Shan-e-Alam, Maulana Ehsan, Asadullah Khan, Mohd. Owais, Shamshad Ahmad, Master Ashfaq and others.
AWMELA in village Ballia
From Ballia AWMELA went to village Ashrafpur where it informed, sought opinion and discussed the legal aspects of the cases being tried in the courts of three states (Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur) with Ejaz Ahmad, Multan Ahmad, Mohd. Masih, Mohd. Maqbool and several others.
AWMELA in village Ashrafpur