Batla House encounter case

Batla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on 19 September 2008, against Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorists, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid were killed while two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one accused Ariz Khan managed to escape. Encounter specialist and Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action was also killed during the incident. The encounter led to arrest of a number of local people, leading to widespread allegations and protests by political parties, civil society groups, activists,^[1] especially teachers and students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University. Several political organizations like the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) demanded a judicial inquiry into the encounter, in the Parliament, as "new versions" of the encounter, started appearing in the newspapers.^[2][3] Subsequently, on the Delhi High Court's directive on 21 May 2009, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its 22 July report cleared the police of any violations of rights.^[4] Public speculations and debate however continued.^[5]

The incident took place a week after five serial blasts on 13 September 2008 that hit Delhi in which at least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured.^[6][7] The killing of Atif Amin, who was the chief bomber of the Indian Mujahideen, had dealt a severe blow to the group, which earlier been blamed for terror attacks between 2007 and 2009, in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Surat and Faizabad, according to investigating agencies. On the two-year anniversary of the encounter a shooting took place at the gates of historic Jama Masjid, Delhi, in which two foreign tourists were injured, apart from that a car bomb with failed timer was also found in the vicinity.^[8][9] The police had filed the chargesheet against Shahzad, Ariz Khan (absconding), Atif Ameen and Mohammed Sajid on 28 April 2010, accusing them of killing Inspector Sharma on 19 September 2008. On 15 February 2011, Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar framed charges against accused Shahzad Ahmed alias Pappu for the offences of murder (Section 302), attempt to murder (Section 307), section 333 (causing hurt to public servant), 353 (assault to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of his public functions) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code, besides section 27 of the Arms Act for his role in the 'encounter'.^[10]

The case was referred to T D Dogra of AIIMS New Delhi for expert opinion, subsequently he appeared in court of law as an expert witness, he had explained the event through animation.^[11] On 25 Jul 2013, the Saket sessions court in its judgement convicted one of the suspects, Shahzad Ahmad, for murder of police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and attempted murder of Head Constables Balwant Singh and Rajbir Singh. The court also found Ahmad guilty of obstructing and assaulting public servants, and grievously injuring the police officers to deter them from performing their duty.^{[12] [13][14][15][16]}

After the verdict, Shahzad's defense counsel Satish Tamta said that the court had proposed its own theory while arriving at the conclusion that Shahzad had escaped after shooting at police officers.^[17]

On 28 August, Yasin Bhatkal, the Chief of Indian Mujahideen was arrested from India-Nepal Border. Yasin had allegedly fled the Batla House, minutes before the encounter took place.^[18]

The encounter

The encounter took place only after seven member police Delhi Police team led by Mohan Chand Sharma Inspector in the Special Cell of Delhi police, stumbled upon IM commander Atif Amin and his comrades in their rented address at L-18, Batla House in the morning of 19 September 2008. The team had received specific information that a suspected person wanted in connection with the serial bomb blasts in Delhi was hiding in a flat in Batla House area of Jamia Nagar.

Upon reaching the four-storied house the police’s attempt to storm the flat on the second floor at around 10 30 AM (IST) led to a heavy exchange of fire. Sharma received the first burst of fire from the terrorists holed up inside. After the ensuing exchange of fire two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohd Sajid were killed, two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one managed to escape.^[19][20] Also two Delhi police personnel were injured, among which, Sharma who led the operation, later succumbed to the injuries. Later, the intelligence team said that the arrested allegedly had links with Dubai and further questioned if they had any link with Dawood Ibrahim.^[21]

It is now learnt that Mohd Sajid was not killed and he later surfaced in Syria as an ISIS recruiter.^[22]

Aftermath

Protest rally against Batla House encounter, 24 October 2008, Delhi, by teachers and students of Jamia Millia Islamia University.

After the incident accusations were raised against the Delhi Police by various politicians, media and civil society outfits of carrying out a fake encounter.^[23] Upon the plea filed by an NGO, "Act Now For Harmony and Democracy", the Delhi High Court on 21 May 2009 asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to enquire into the police version of the encounter, and submit its report in complete within two months. Subsequently on 22 July, NHRC after its investigations, in 30-page report submitted its report which gave a clean chit to Delhi Police in the case.^[24] The inquiry ruled out the conspiracy theory suggestion that it was "inter-departmental rivalry" which might have led to the death of Inspector M C Sharma on the basis of postmortem report that he had a gunshot wound on the "hypochondriac region of the abdomen", which ruled out an attack from behind. In August 2009, the Delhi high court accepted the findings of NHRC and declined to institute a judicial probe.^[25]

On the evening of 13 Sept 2008 a series of bomb blasts rocked the Indian capital New Delhi. This blast killed around 30 people and injured more than 100. The Delhi Police was assigned to investigate the bombing. As part of their investigation, the Delhi Police examined several leads, witnesses and CCTV footages. During the examination of the leads available to the Delhi Police, they deduced that the suspects of the bombings or people connected with the bombings may be hiding in a building called Batla House in the Jamia Nagar area of New Delhi. In addition of the investigative leads, the Delhi Police received a specific piece of intelligence confirming the location of the terrorists hide-out "Batla House".

A Delhi Police team headed by Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma arrived at the Batla House to arrest the potential suspects. Since, Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma knew that he would be raiding a terrorist hide-out, he had his team equipped with bullet proof jackets and automatic weapons but strangely he did not wear any bullet proof jacket. On top of this he also volunteered to lead the assault.

As soon as the assault team broke open the door, the terrorists who were hiding in one of the flats of Batla House, fired with their weapon hitting Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma. He was shot in his abdomen, thigh and arm. Besides him two other policemen were also injured. Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma died on his way to the hospital due to excessive bleeding while his two colleagues survived.

In the ensuing firefight between the Delhi Police, two terrorists were killed, two were arrested and one escaped who reappeared in Syria two days ago as an ISIS recruiter. In the subsequent raids after interrogating the two captured terrorists many arrests were made across India which included many low level Muslim political leaders.

What happened after this shoot-out between the Delhi Police and the terrorists is a matter of concern for Indian national security. Many popular political leaders belonging to the political parties like Samajwadi Party, Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party accused the Delhi Police of staging a false shoot-out and killing two innocent Muslim youth. The family of Insp. Mohan Chand Sharma returned the government money accusing the political party of playing vote bank politics and felt insulted. The Supreme Court of India ordered the National Human Right Commission of India to conduct an investigation to see if there were any truth in the accusations of fake killings of the two Muslim youth. The NHRCI submitted a report to the Supreme Court of India in which they concluded that there was no evidence that an extra-judicial killing took place and the two terrorists killed were a genuine police operation thus exhonarating the Delhi Police of any wrong doing in this operation. In the meantime while this investigation was underway, Salman Kurshid a senior leader of the Congress Party stated in a meeting or in some event that the Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress had tears in her eyes when she read the news that two Muslim "Youth" were killed. This angered many Indians across the country because it was proved beyond doubt that the two men killed were indeed terrorists and Salman Kurshid was playing vote bank politics since a national election was only a few months away. This statement of Salman Kurshid was condemned by several Muslim leaders and imminent personalities as well.

This is what happened in Batla House and this is the reason why Sonia Gandhi had tears in her eyes.

Sharma was a much decorated police officer and had won seven gallantry medals including the President of India's Medal in 2009. He was posthumously awarded India's highest peace-time military decoration the Ashoka Chakra on 26 January 2009.^[26]

Shahzad's sister said that her brother was falsely implicated, and vowed to fight for justice by appealing to the supreme court.^[27]

Response

In a 2008 article, Muqtedar Khan, Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware, spoke against what he called the "intellectually dishonest" representatives of Muslims who "live in denial"…"They first deny that there is such a thing as jihadi terrorism, resorting to conspiracy theories blaming every act of jihadi violence either on Israel, the U.S. or India. Then they argue that unjust wars by these three nations [in Palestine, Iraq and Kashmir] are the primary cause for jihadi violence; a phenomenon whose very existence they have already denied." ^[23]

Jama Masjid shooting 2010

On the two-year anniversary of the encounter, on 19 September 2010 two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at a foreign tourist bus near Gate 3 of the historic Jama Masjid in Delhi and injured two Taiwanese tourists. Subsequently police investigations revealed that one of the timers of the cooker bomb planted in a car was timed at exactly 11.37 am, the time when the Batla encounter had taken place. The e-mail, sent to the BBC and Mumbai ATS, claiming responsibility for the attack mentions two terrorists as Shaheed or martyrs.^[28] The attack gains significance from the fact that it took place on the two-year anniversary of the Batla House encounter in which Atif Amin, the chief bomber of the Indian Mujahideen was killed, this had dealt a severe blow to the group, which earlier been blamed for terror attacks between 2007 and 2009, in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur Surat and Faizabad, according to investigating agencies, the blast announced the revival of the group, in an email to the media, with the intention of avenging the killed terrorists.^[8][9]

2010 Varanasi bombing

Mumbai Police investigations after the 2010 Varanasi bombing, indicated that Pakistan-based Bhatkal brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal, the chiefs of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) being the brains behind the explosion, which was carried out by Dr Shahnawaz presently based both in Dubai and Pakistan. He is the brother of IM foot soldier Mohammed Saif, who was arrested in the Batla House encounter. Dr Shahnawaz along with Khalid, Abu Rashid and Bada Sajid or Mohammed Sajid had fled to Nepal after the encounter. Shanawaz was formerly a physician in a Lucknow Hospital and all four now hold Nepalese passports.^[29][30]

In April 2017, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch stated that Bada Sajid was killed while fighting for ISIL in Syria.^[31]

See also

• 13 September 2008 Delhi bombings

References

External links

• No Cover Under Fire. Outlook. 6 October 2008. 
• "Behind the Batla House shootout". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 10 October 2008.