Consistent battle for information has unravelled several intriguing truth in the past five years when the RTI Act was passed. The young RTI ‘Maverick’ Afroz Alam Sahil, who has to his credit the post-mortem report of the deceased in the Batla House Encounter, has got another piece of information which is both surprising and reveals the sorry state of affairs of the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC).
Afroz had filed a petition under RTI Act 2005 to enquire about the ‘Fact Finding’ team that was supposedly constituted to ‘assess and analyse facts of the Police action’ inside Flat No L-18 of the Batla House, where the encounter took place. Many locals and human rights activists have questioned the Police version and believe that the encounter was ‘fake’. The reply that Afroz has got says that no fact finding team ever visited the site or talked to locals and never submitted any report. On the question of who comprised of the ‘fact finding’ team it further gives references tosection 8 (b & h) of the RTI Act, which allows the authority to withhold information if prohibited by a tribunal or court; or the reply may endanger the life of the person(s) concerned, respectively.
Interestingly Afroz has a copy of the document which has names of all the members of the said team. Says Afroz, “The report that I had got from the NHRC has a page which says that a fact Finding team would analyse facts and atmosphere, but the subsequent report was missing”. This prompted him to file a separate RTI, but it seems the endeavour has gone waste.
After repeated denial by the Delhi Police and AIIMS, Afroz had filed a RTI with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) requesting them to supply information based on which the NHRC has formulated its report and concluded that the encounter was not fake, as largely believed. The copy of documents that he had received comprised of reports submitted by the Additional Commissioner of Police (Vigilance), Special Commissioner of Police (Vigilance), Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Deputy Commissioner of police (Vigilance), Joint Commissioner of Police and Deputy Secretary (Home) of the NCT of Delhi. It also had copies of the post-mortem reports of alleged terrorists and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
The same report has the copy of a letter that talks about the said ‘Fact Finding Committee’ and their objective. But it contains no report. According to this document, the team comprised of four members – Maqsood Ahmed, Dr D. K. Panday, Dr Mahender Singh and Rev. Manoj Malaki. The document dated 5 November, 2008 is signed by then Secretary of DMC Sanjay Pratap Singh. When asked if such a team was actually constituted, Kamal Faruqui, who was the Chairman of the DMC at the time refused to comment.
A member of the supposed Committee, on the assurance of anonymity, told this reporter that the “DMC never seemed serious and that we were never provided any resources. Further the Committee was soon dissolved”.
Showing posts with label Batla House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Batla House. Show all posts
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, September 20, 2009
On encounter anniversary: doubts and gloom
September 19 brought back gloom in the minds of residents of the Batla House locality in Delhi. One year has passed since the infamous Delhi encounter that was conducted days after serial blasts in the capital.
Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group, a lose association of teachers of the University formed in the backdrop of the last year encounter, brought a mashal march (torchlight rally) on the eve of the encounter anniversary along with other students organizations. Academicians, students and several civil right activists participated in the march. Newly elected MLA of the Okhla Assembly Aisf Mohammad Khan, who was also present, said that he has been raising the issue of independent enquiry and will continue to do so on all platforms.
The demand for independent judicial enquiry again reverberated and many compared it to the Ishrat Jahan case of Gujarat, where judicial probe has now questioned the role of the police involved in the 2004 encounter.
Other than the march organized by Jamia teachers, the locality at large seemed to have put the issue aside and move ahead though suspicion against police still looms high The market in the Batla House is gushing with crowd and locals are busy shopping for Eid. In the last Assembly elections the issue of encounter was high on the agenda. But in the last week concluded by election, it was not as prominent.
Meanwhile, several other groups, including main Opposition BJP, has put up posters of “Martyr” Mohan Chand Sharma, the Police officer who lost his life in the operation, at several places in the city glorifying the ‘fight against terrorism’ and his ‘sacrifice’.
There is no real progress in the case yet. Those who have been arrested in connection are still languishing in several jails. A report by National Human Right Commission (NHRC) has already given a clean chit to the operation and remarked that ‘there is no need of further enquiry’. The Delhi High Court has accordingly denied any further enquiry in the matter. Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), a NGO led Shabnam Hashmi, has filed a petition in the Apex Court against HC order requesting for judicial enquiry.
“People raise questions because they have doubts. If the government and the police has nothing to hide, why are they shying away from enquiry”, asks Afroz Alam Sahil who sought information’s under Right to Information (RTI) Act from several bodies including Delhi Police, NHRC and the hospital where postmortem of the deceased were conducted. He has been “denied” information in a “clear mockery of the RTI”, he adds.
Protest march was also organized in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, the alleged ‘hub’ of terrorism. Atif and Sajid, killed in the conspirators killed in the operation, were also from the same place. Magsay award winner Sandeep Pandey, who too reiterated the demand for an enquiry, led the protest.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Another blast, another encounter, people in dilemma
On 13th September, Delhi was again shaken by serial blasts. September 19, Delhi Police cracked down on “terrorist suspects” in South Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. In the Police encounter two ‘alleged terrorists’ were killed, one more arrested, while two others escaped. Three cops were also injured. Senior encounter specialist Mohan Sharma succumbed to bullet injuries latter in the evening in a city Hospital. The Police clamped down heavily on ‘suspected terrorists’ and arrested several others in Delhi and other places.
Things look quite hunky-dory. But what appears is so straight forward can often be very deceiving. Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangluru, Ahmedabad, Delhi; after every blasts the officials line is that some “foreign hands” are funding home bred (and sometimes trained abroad) terrorists, who carry out those horrendous crimes to avenge oppressions on fellow Muslim brothers in Gujarat and elsewhere. What is perplexing is that even if there are blasts in some mosques, the point of view that, perhaps, some opposing extremists might be behind the explosion does not even feature in Police’s prima facie investigations. After every attack, members of a particular community are detained, harassed, arrested, tortured, and sometimes even killed in ‘encounters’. The famous Sohrabuddin “fake encounter” case still hounds up humans with hearts.
Tehleka ran a special series on the issue and what came out was astounding. For any attacks the way media and Police act, it seems as if entire community is the conspirator. It has forced the Muslims against the wall. I am in no way suggesting that Muslims’ hands are all clean and all encounters are fabricated. Perhaps there is some truth in what the Police and the Government say.
But for some bad fishes of the pond, holding entire community responsible and branding every Ahmed, Akhtar and Khan as ‘terrorist’ will only further alienate the community. Any one who is guilty must be punished. However, what happens most of the time is that while cops keep beating about the bush and real culprits are seldom escort free. The Police, the Judiciary, the Government, political parties, all seem to have some biasness or prejudices.
I don’t mean to say that culprits of the Bombay blasts should be given some clemency. But then hardly there has been any real progress in the Bombay riot cases. Cops, who were involved, according to the Report, still continue in offices. Nanavati Commission does not see any relation between Godhra carnage and riots that followed or finds no hands of Mr. Modi or his cabinet. This contradicts Narendra Bhai Modi’s theory of ‘action-reaction’.
Sachar Commission’s Report documented what Muslims knew very well- the deplorable conditions of most of them economically, educationally and socially. Yet not much is being done really on the ground.
I have my reservations in calling those perpetrators ‘Indian Mujaheden’, for I doubt the authenticity of their ‘Islamism’. Either those handful ‘Islamists’ are right, or the majority of Muslims, whom Islam teaches patience, brotherhood and peace; the very name of whose religion comes from Arabic word ‘salam’ meaning surrender and peace. It’s a religion which says “with you is your religion, with me mine”.
Naxal or Islamic militants, they may have different ideologies, but both of them believe in bringing revolution with the ‘barrel of the gun’. But the Government too wants to curb and check all forms of rebellion by ‘barrel’. This is not going to solve the problem. Going by the Police version of the entire incident, the situation has really become very grave, and hence needs to be tackled sincerely. If 17 and 22 year old (and sometimes even 32) guys, most of whom are University graduates are involved in such “antinational” activities, mere brainwash by some ‘foreign hands’ and mouth are not the real cause. Such doctors and engineers need serious counseling and more than that there needs to be greater efforts to try and integrate a particular section of the society, who feels alienated and left out.
My appeal to all politicians, left right and centre (and this includes Muslim politicians) is that do not look upon Muslims just as vote banks or follow the so called policy of appeasement. Look at Muslims, and Christians, and every Indian as citizens of one country, and more importantly look at them just as fellow beings as our Hindu brothers.
My even greater appeal is to all Mullahs or scholars of Islam, and the larger intelligentsia of the community is to try and understand the world reality, and do not keep a narrow view of a great religion like Islam. I remember a couplet from Jagjeet Singh’s ghazal:
“Mai na Hindu, na Musalman; Mujhe Jeene do.
Dosti hai mera imaan, mujhe jeene do.”
Things look quite hunky-dory. But what appears is so straight forward can often be very deceiving. Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangluru, Ahmedabad, Delhi; after every blasts the officials line is that some “foreign hands” are funding home bred (and sometimes trained abroad) terrorists, who carry out those horrendous crimes to avenge oppressions on fellow Muslim brothers in Gujarat and elsewhere. What is perplexing is that even if there are blasts in some mosques, the point of view that, perhaps, some opposing extremists might be behind the explosion does not even feature in Police’s prima facie investigations. After every attack, members of a particular community are detained, harassed, arrested, tortured, and sometimes even killed in ‘encounters’. The famous Sohrabuddin “fake encounter” case still hounds up humans with hearts.
Tehleka ran a special series on the issue and what came out was astounding. For any attacks the way media and Police act, it seems as if entire community is the conspirator. It has forced the Muslims against the wall. I am in no way suggesting that Muslims’ hands are all clean and all encounters are fabricated. Perhaps there is some truth in what the Police and the Government say.
But for some bad fishes of the pond, holding entire community responsible and branding every Ahmed, Akhtar and Khan as ‘terrorist’ will only further alienate the community. Any one who is guilty must be punished. However, what happens most of the time is that while cops keep beating about the bush and real culprits are seldom escort free. The Police, the Judiciary, the Government, political parties, all seem to have some biasness or prejudices.
I don’t mean to say that culprits of the Bombay blasts should be given some clemency. But then hardly there has been any real progress in the Bombay riot cases. Cops, who were involved, according to the Report, still continue in offices. Nanavati Commission does not see any relation between Godhra carnage and riots that followed or finds no hands of Mr. Modi or his cabinet. This contradicts Narendra Bhai Modi’s theory of ‘action-reaction’.
Sachar Commission’s Report documented what Muslims knew very well- the deplorable conditions of most of them economically, educationally and socially. Yet not much is being done really on the ground.
I have my reservations in calling those perpetrators ‘Indian Mujaheden’, for I doubt the authenticity of their ‘Islamism’. Either those handful ‘Islamists’ are right, or the majority of Muslims, whom Islam teaches patience, brotherhood and peace; the very name of whose religion comes from Arabic word ‘salam’ meaning surrender and peace. It’s a religion which says “with you is your religion, with me mine”.
Naxal or Islamic militants, they may have different ideologies, but both of them believe in bringing revolution with the ‘barrel of the gun’. But the Government too wants to curb and check all forms of rebellion by ‘barrel’. This is not going to solve the problem. Going by the Police version of the entire incident, the situation has really become very grave, and hence needs to be tackled sincerely. If 17 and 22 year old (and sometimes even 32) guys, most of whom are University graduates are involved in such “antinational” activities, mere brainwash by some ‘foreign hands’ and mouth are not the real cause. Such doctors and engineers need serious counseling and more than that there needs to be greater efforts to try and integrate a particular section of the society, who feels alienated and left out.
My appeal to all politicians, left right and centre (and this includes Muslim politicians) is that do not look upon Muslims just as vote banks or follow the so called policy of appeasement. Look at Muslims, and Christians, and every Indian as citizens of one country, and more importantly look at them just as fellow beings as our Hindu brothers.
My even greater appeal is to all Mullahs or scholars of Islam, and the larger intelligentsia of the community is to try and understand the world reality, and do not keep a narrow view of a great religion like Islam. I remember a couplet from Jagjeet Singh’s ghazal:
“Mai na Hindu, na Musalman; Mujhe Jeene do.
Dosti hai mera imaan, mujhe jeene do.”
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