New Delhi: Mounting pressure on
the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre for a judicial probe
into the Batla House encounter, the Coordiantion Committee of Indian
Muslims (CCIM), an umbrella body of leading Muslim organizations,
held a protest demonstration today at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
CCIM was formed last year in the wake of rising incidence of
minority witchhunting following terror strikes in the country.
Addressing the
protest rally, CCIM leaders denounced the National Human Rights
Commission report on the September 19, 2008 encounter as, they said,
it is just a copy of the police version of the encounter. They
rejected it saying it one-sided as the apex human rights body did
not bother to talk to families of the victims, neighbors and civil
and human rights groups who had exposed loopholes in the police
story about the encounter.
Two Azamgarh
youths, whom police described as terror suspects, were killed by the
police in the shootout. Delhi police inspector M C Sharma had also
sustained bullet injuries which he succumbed to in the evening on
the same day.
NHRC in its report submitted to the Delhi High Court last week said
the police did not violate any human right in this case. It opened
fire in its self defence, said the report.
Addressing the
protest rally Dr S Q R Ilyas, executive committee member, All India
Muslim Personal Law Board, termed the NHRC report a blot and a
question mark on its credibility. He described the report as
shameful because it just toed the line of the police.
Abdur
Rasheed Agwan, executive committee member, All India Muslim Majlise
Mushawarat, said there should be a judicial enquiry for every
encounter, not only for Batla House encounter. He refuted the
government’s argument for not allowing probe that this will
demoralize the police force. “Police can commit mistakes in
executing its duty and so if it is found guilty in some case this
will not demoralize them. But no enquiry in the Batla encounter will
certainly demoralize the minority community,” he said.
Addressing the
protestors Maulana Nizamuddin, leader of Ulema Council which has now
become part of CCIM, said time has come for the people to rise
against the opressive government. There is a need to change the
power system so that the marginalized and minorities could get their
rights, he maintained. We won’t sit unless our demand of judicial
probe is accepted, he announced. Ulema Council had brought its
supporters in three buses from Azamgarh.
Shia leader Maulana Zeeshan Hidayati also lambasted the NHRC for the
report. “It is shameful that protector of human rights could not
protect the rights of the innocents,” he said.
At the end of the
protest rally, a delegation of the CCIM in the leadership of its
convenor Mujtaba Farooq, who is political affairs secretary of
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, went to meet Home Minister P Chidambaram and
demand judicial probe into the encounter. As the minister was not in
the office, the delegation submitted a memorandum to his office.
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