18^th September 2009

On 19^th September, it will be one year since the Batla House ‘Encounter’. Till date there has been no fair probe into the incident despite widespread public outcry and questions raised by civil rights groups. The recent revelations in the Sohrabuddin killing and the Ishrat Jehan fake encounter case have strengthened our fear that Batla House was not an isolated incident but forms part of a wider pattern of minority witch hunting in the name of combating terrorism. Sadly, encounters and false arrests of Muslim youth is not a feature of BJP or NDA-ruled states alone; in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi, all Congress-ruled states, the situation is no different. Ishrat Jehan’s family had to wait for five long years for the truth to come out through the magisterial enquiry—also partly because the so-called ‘secular’ UPA consistently bulldozed demands for an enquiry and indeed filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating the Ishrat was a Lashkar operative.

It is to be noted that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi blocked any magisterial enquiry into the Batla House ‘encounter’ on spurious grounds in complete violation of the NHRC guidelines for encounter killings. Moreover, the NHRC itself indulged in a partisan ‘enquiry based on the police version alone.

JTSA and AISA therefore called for a torchlight procession (mashaal juloos) on the eve of the anniversary of the ‘encounter’. Teachers and students from Jamia, Delhi University, and JNU, as well as civil rights activists and filmmakers joined the demonstration in large numbers.

The demonstrators demanded:

-          Judicial probe into the Batla House ‘Encounter’ at the earliest

-          Speedy trials for all the accused and arrested youth who were arrested in the aftermath of the encounter—as trials are yet to begin even after one year.

In addition, 19^th September will be observed as a Black Day, with people and democratic rights activists posting black badges to the Prime Minister, reiterating the demand for Judicial Probe.