AIMMM, Muslim MPs reject NHRC report on Batla House encounter,Demand high level judicial probe

 Syed Hasan Waheed 

New Delhi,  The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM) in a statement issued on 23rd July rejected the Indian ‘National Human Rights Commission’ report and the clean chit given by the commission to Delhi police on Batla House encounter in which two students were killed in so-called police encounter with the plotters of the Delhi bomb blasts last year. 

After the release of NHRC report on the controversial encounter several Muslim Members of Parliament of India on July 23 reacted critically and denounced the report and demanded a fair judicial inquiry into the case. 
Another group which casted its doubt on the NHRC report and its clean chit to the Delhi police demanding for an high level judicial inquiry was Jamia ‘Teachers’ Solidarity Group’ (JTSG)

The All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat [umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations] expressed its dismay at the clean chit given by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to the Delhi police in the Batla House “encounter” case believed by many in the area to be fake. 

The AIMMM president Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said that the hasty NHRC report seems to be solely based on police briefing and papers offered by the police which have been denied to relatives of the encounter victims. There is no indication that the commission bothered to contact relatives of the victims or residents of the area where the infamous encounter took place or the civil society organisations which conducted fact-finding about the event and expressed serious misgivings about the police version. Moreover, the NHRC did not deign to even acknowledge many representations made by the relatives of the victims sent to the commission by post.  

The NHRC, Dr Khan added, did not take sou moto notice of an event which shook millions of people and moved only when it was asked by the High Court to probe the matter in the face of the stout refusal of the Delhi Lt.Governor to allow an enquiry. The NHRC even failed to take notice of the fact that the police flouted the commission’s own guidelines to conduct an enquiry in every case of killing by its officers.  

As such, we reject this suspect and one-sided report and stick to our demand for a proper judicial enquiry into the incident which led to the murder of two young students and the arrest of dozens of young men ostensibly to justify and cover up the murder by people in khaki, Dr Khan concluded.

It is to be noted that several demonstrations in different parts of Delhi were held by students, Jamia ‘Teachers’ Solidarity Group’ (JTSG) and progressive writers and artists opposing the fake encounter and demanding a judicial probe and asking the government and judicial authorities to intervene and stop the further harassment of Jamia Millia Islamia University students on different pretexts. These demonstrations were held in Jamia University Campus, Jamia Nagar and the famous site Jantar Mantar. The speakers who addressed these rallies belonged to different religions of India including communists.

Several national political leaders including Amar Singh the general secretary of the Samajvadi Party and present Indian Railways Minister Mamta Benerjee of Tirunamul Congress Part drew huge crowds in their addresses promising a high judicial probe and enquiry and the main doubt was the dramatic way of the encounter in which Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was also killed. 

Delhi serial bomb blasts took place on September 13, 2008 in which more than 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured including several Muslims as it coincided with the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadhan and most of the labour class Muslims were out on streets to break their fast. It was only six days later i.e on September 19, 2008 the Batla House encounter took place, Delhi police claiming to have traced the culprits in which two so-called terrorists and bomb plotters were killed and several Muslim students of highly esteemed educational institutions were arrested and tortured on the pretext of being accomplice in the bomb blasts.