From: Feroze Mithiborwala <feroze.moses777@gmail.com>
Date: 2010/3/23
Subject: Re: Most Urgent: statement for signature for judicial enquiry into the batla house 'encounter'
Dear All, The post-mortem report on the Batla House Encounter has more than proved the case & vindicated the struggle.
We the undersigned strongly feel that there ought to be a time-bound judicial probe into the Batla House 'encounter' in which two young men, Atif Ameen and 17-year-old Md. Sajid, were killed along with Inspector Sharma of the Delhi Police Special Cell. Since the day of the 'encounter', questions have been raised by civil rights groups over the version supplied by the police. These doubts have pertained to the police claim that two alleged terrorists escaped from the fourth floor flat where the 'encounter' took place; the fact that the slain boys had voluntarily undergone tenant verification with the local Jamia Nagar Police station, and that they had acquired post paid cell phone connections, providing all genuine address details put a large question mark over the police assertion that they were dreaded terrorists. But most of all, it was the appearance of the photographs of their bodies—taken at the time of their ritual bathing prior to burial—which demonstrated that Sajid had been shot in the head (as if he had been shot while being held down), while Atif's back was sloughed off. In addition, there were injuries that could not have been caused by gunshots. This naturally raised the suspicion that the two had been held captive, tortured and then killed. These suspicions have been provided credence by the post mortem reports, which have been made public recently in response to repeated petitions by an RTI activist over the last one and a half years. The post mortem reports clearly establish that the two sustained injuries produced by "blunt force impact"—but what is the most startling revelation in the reports is that neither Atif nor Sajid was shot even once from the front! It is impossible to conceive of a situation in which two parties are exchanging fire—as the police claims—and then for one side to only receive bullets in the back or the head region.
We express our deep disappointment at the manner in which demands for an enquiry have been dismissed by the government—even the basic procedural requirement of a magisterial enquiry was stalled by the Lt. Governor of Delhi. The only enquiry conducted till date has been by the NHRC, which has proven itself to be utterly partisan and biased in its eagerness to absolve the Delhi Police of all guilt. Not only did it not hear the neighbours, potential eyewitnesses, families of the slain boys, it now emerges that it also willfully ignored the post mortem reports of Atif and Sajid—evidence that was contradicting the police claims that it merely fired in self defence. In light of the revelations of the post mortem reports and in absence of any genuine enquiry into the 'encounter', we reiterate the demand raised by civil rights activists that the government immediately institute a time-bound judicial enquiry to ascertain the truth of the matter. For remember, even Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jehan killings were touted as great successes of the security agencies till enquiries proved them otherwise.
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Feroze Mithiborwala
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Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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