*JUDICIAL ENQUIRY DEMANDED ON DELHI ENCOUNTER* *(FAKE REPORTS FROM POLICE)* **
*By Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims* *Countercurrents.org *http://www.countercurrents.org/ccim220908.htm *T*he Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims, representing all major Indian Muslim organizations is an ad hoc high level committee set up to deal with the current terrorism scare aiming the Muslim community in India. The committee expresses its sorrow and grief at the untimely death of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma during the encounter in Jamia Nagar's Batla House on 19 September. The community offers its sincere condolences to his family. The committee reiterates that Islam and Muslims are fundamentally opposed to terrorism as Islam and its holy book, The Qur'an, categorically forbid killing anyone unjustly and by unjust means. The Indian Muslim community through umpteen conferences and religious scholars and institutions, including the famous seminary of Darul UIoom at Deoband, has issued clear fatwas denouncing terrorism as an act totally forbidden in Islam. The Muslim community is opposed to terrorism whatever its source and shape. We want to contribute to usher in a terror-free India. We believe that existing laws are sufficient to deal with this scourge. We clearly reject giving unlimited authority to the police. We, in particular, reject the legal sanctity to "confessions" given to the police and making bail applications more difficult for those accused of terrorism. No other law in India makes "confessions" to the police admissible in courts and this one must not be an exception. The Indian police, which normally resorts to third degree torture, is highly discredited in the eyes of the public. In all terrorism cases, where the police fails to file charge-sheets within a reasonable time-frame like six months, the accused should automatically get the right to apply for bail. We feel that the Muslim community in general and the Muslim youths in particular are being targeted in the name of fighting terrorism. While security agencies should go about their work to secure the country from terror and make enquiries and arrest the accused and suspects, the same must not take place in an intimidating and insensitive manner. We are opposed to the insensitive style of the police functioning which creates terror and panic in the Muslim localities. We condemn the security and intelligence agencies' rush to the media after any such incident with theories and conclusions before any real and proper investigation. We also express our displeasure at the print and electronic media which blindly reproduces leaks attributed to unknown security agencies and starts blaming the Muslim community minutes after any terrorist incident. This leads to instability in the country and ill-will towards the whole Muslim community. We demand that whenever police undertakes a combing or search operation in any Muslim locality, at least one third of the raiding force must consist of officers belonging to the minority community, and minority elders of the affected area should be taken into confidence and made part of the enquiry and interrogation teams. Such operations must not look like a patently anti-Muslim exercise. This will restore some credibility to the discredited police and security agencies. We make it clear that the style of provocative searches and encounters is unacceptable in a democratic society. It always smacks of a preplanned conspiracy and betrays the police's inability or unwillingness to face courts of law. More specifically, we reject the Batla-house style of encounter killings. We fail to understand why the alleged terrorists were not caught alive. People in the area believe that it was a fake encounter, that it was a one-sided and pre-planned affair. With this encounter the police has discovered a new "mastermind" for all the explosions in the past which means that India will no longer face terrorist blasts. We demand a high-level judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter so that all facts may come out. We also demand stringent action including immediate ban against HIndutva terrorist outfits, especially VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shri Ram Sena, Hindu Munnani, Hindu Jagran Manch, Yuva Hindu Vahini, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and Durga Vahini etc, which are targeting Muslim and Christian communities in a number of states. We are unable to understand why the government and security agencies are unable to proceed against Sangh Parivar outfits which have been caught red-handed in acts of terrorism and making bombs. We also demand the government to probe all possible angles of terrorism in India, including local and foreign forces which benefit from instability and chaos in India. Mujtaba Farooq, Convenor, Coordination Committee & Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, President, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat Ml. Abdul Hameed Nomani, Acting General Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind Ml. Abdul Wahab Khilji, Asstt General Secretary, All India Milli Council Ml. Mahmoodul Hasan, President, Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees, Delhi Pradesh Dr Taslim Rahmani, President, Muslim Political Council Ml. Zeeshan Hidayati, Chairman, Majlis-e Fikr-o Amal Irfanullah Khan, Chairman Jamia Nagar Coordination Committee Ml. Jalal Haidar Naqvi, Secretary, Majlis-e Ulama-e Islam Supported by Gopal Rai, Conenor, Teesra Swandheemta Andolan Bhai Tej Singh, President, Ambedkar Samaj Party *SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DELHI ENCOUNTER* *By Shabnam Hashmi, Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal, Arshad Alam & Pallavi Deka* *Countercurrents.org *http://www.countercurrents.org/hashmi210908.htm *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 (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? 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, Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal, Arshad Alam, Pallavi Deka Thanks Best Regards ABDUL VAHID K Dubai UAE +971503455387 +971552298487
