[Reader-list] regarding the police action in Jamia nagar, secular views.?

[फ़ातिमा Fatima]

Dear Rejendra
I agree with everything you say. The police does provide us the protection, and their sacrifice should not be doubted in any way.

But you mentioned: "For every incident, we try to color it with faith"

Let us assume terrorism has no religion (which everyone says any way), and let us treat the terrorists as ordinary criminals without putting any religious identity on them. Do you agree?

Why is it then that the terror suspects arrested by the police were paraded before the media with Arab head-scarves on their heads? I know their faces needed to be hidden by law, but why with Arab scarves? 

This clearly shows that some individuals in the police (I'm not blaming the whole govt.) are hell-bent on proving that terrorism belongs to a certain religion. And media is their partner in getting the message across. Am I wrong?

When some of the arrested boys (from Jamia) were released at the night of 19th Sept. by the police (when they found no evidence of their involvement), the Special Branch officials abused them by saying that "you wretched people (saley tum log) are only meant to blast bombs - that's what your religion teaches you."

So, who is bringing the religion in this debate? And why the perpetrators of mass violence from the other religions (in Kandhamal) not being banned after repeated appeals?

This is not a matter between so-called Rightists and Leftists, or between Hindus and Muslims. Its an issue between the victimized power-less people and the prejudiced powerful people. Period.

SF


--- मंगल, 14/10/08 को, rajendra bhat <raja_starkglass at yahoo.com> ने लिखा:

> द्वारा: rajendra bhat <raja_starkglass at yahoo.com>
> विषय: Re: [Reader-list] reader-list Digest, Vol 63, Issue 47, regarding the police action in Jamia nagar, secular views.?
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> दिनांक: मंगलवार, 14 अक्टूबर, 2008, 5:29 PM
> It is interesting and fascinating how our secular citizens
> in their enthusiasm to please all the votes and their
> friends go out of the way to put up silliest of
> "facts" forgetting that they are safe and secure
> because of the defence forces guarding the boundaries,
> police force enforcing the laws of the land. True the
> individuals in the armed forces and police are also humans,
> with human flaws, but they are not foolish to lay down their
> life for a society for vote banks.?
> Brave police officer who had his progeny in the hospital
> for medical treatment, needed blood transfusion for the
> child, but call of duty was such that he left the family to
> fend for itself, did not bother to take the bullet proof
> vest, but was in action. If the same were to happen in any
> other area none would have raised any doubts about the
> encounter, but as it happened in an area where minority are
> majority, the questions are raised about the very facts of
> the encounter, by who else but a "senior" supreme
> court advovate, who has forgotten the procedure to meet the
> detainees he has to move the application in the court of a
> magistrate.! But he prefers to sit on dharna in front of the
> police station, with a intellectual, from bookers gang, who
> has understood the "freedom" is that she can take
> license to condemn the constitution, advocate secession with
> seditious statements after supping with the terrorist
> friends.! 
>   No wonder, if individuals in armed forces and police
> really do a rethink whether it is worthwhile to be laying
> down their life for a society which "tolerates"
> such licentious behaviour as freedom?No doubt to be in
> spotlight, in tv camera frames such juvenile axts are to be
> condemned, but is it the only way to behave in this nation?
> 
>   To top it there are members on the list who talk of the
> encounter being fake, express doubts about the whole
> incident as all the youth are paragons of virtue, as if none
> in the society are of deviant behaviour, that too if they
> are from a particyular faith.? How many of you have really
> seen inside of a jamia nagar and many such ghettos in
> India.? Wherever the minority is majority, it is welknown
> fact that law enforcing is real headache as the goons inside
> the ghetto take over the management of the ghettos. No doubt
> there are many good individuals in the muslim community, who
> are compassionate, considerate, sensitive and humane, but
> such voices are stubbonly stifled by the "leaders'
> of the community which normally are the mullas like the
> bukharis,  who have political axe to grind.? 
> 
>  If any of you have very holy thoughts that jamia nagar is
> only full of good individuals, then think again, there are
> enough individuals of dubious character, there are enough
> pimps and sex workers who assure you all the sensous
> pleasures for right kind of give and take. Police in uniform
> can not go easily without sufficient numbers into this area
> to even inquiries, leave alone apprehending.!  Compare this
> with any other area where majority is majority in that area,
> police are capable of apprehending anyone with deviant
> behaviour, none will object, no write ups from day one to
> day ten in the blogs, no one thinks that the majority
> community is targetted for the police action.? 
> 
>   When do we as individuals learn to behave as responsive
> citizens and respect laws of the land.?For every incident,
> we try to color it with faith, that is the reason today the
> individuals get away in a society with their deviant
> behaviour, as even law and lawyers are ready to take the
> brief for right figures?
> In secular governance the nedd is to respect all faiths,
> but not pamper the individuals of any faith for their votes
> and tolerate their indecent, criminal and treacherous
> behaviour because they belong to any faith.! The yadav can
> loot the chara funds, a obc can throw the dalit into fire,
> then he is seen as "hindu" but when electon comes
> the yadav becomes yadav community, jat becomes the leader of
> jat vote bank, thus hindus have to first learn to be correct
> and give space to all in hindu society, then none need
> search the faith of any arabic origin or hijacked religion
> of betheleham of roman hijack.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> One day later, on Oct 7, '08 - In an identical act,
> Naeem Mohaimen posts  "FINANCE: Karthik Rajaram Kills
> Family, Himself". He too reproduces the news item and
> gives the weblink.
>  
> Naeem makes no comment as an introduction to the news item.
>  
> Response from Inder Salim to Naeem Mohaimen ---------
> "thanks for forwarding the news item which appeared in
> all the daily news papers all over the world."
>  
> How should one consider this person Inder Salim? 
>  
> This comes in quick succession after the List Administrator
> similarly displayed hypocritical attitudes by de-listing one
> person for abusive language and not having taken similar
> action against another person who also had used abusive
> language ( equally abusive and crude)
>  
> Kshmendra
>  
>  
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
>       
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:51:12 +0530
> From: "Aarti Sethi" <aarti.sethi at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Behind the Batla House shootout
> - Praveen
>     Swami
> To: "Aditya Raj Kaul"
> <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
> Cc: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Message-ID:
>    
> <48c2916d0810120621s6c5ae31ct1180a9da86db48fd at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"
> 
> Surely you jest Aditya? I am sure you are fully aware of
> the word on the
> street about Pravin Swami. The fact that he has anything to
> say about the
> encounter at all should alert us to the fact that it is
> absolutely fake. No
> more evidence is needed, than that Pravin the great expert
> hath spoken.
> Clearly his bosses in dark and mysetrious places are
> feeling the heat being
> generated by the volume of questions, and so like always,
> he has been
> instructed to perform his usual ventroloquist act.
> 
> regards
> Aarti
> 
> 
> On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 9:47 AM, Aditya Raj Kaul
> <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > An interesting piece by one of the most renowned
> expert on internal
> > security
> > and terrorism, Praveen Swami. It highlights the major
> areas which have been
> > missed by those campaigning hard to convert this
> encounter or at least
> > portray it as fake one. Hope they plan a better theory
> or else revise their
> > 'Wonderland' stories. Have a look at 'The
> Hindu' column below which came
> > out
> > in today's newspaper.
> >
> > Love
> > Aditya Raj Kaul
> >
> >
> >
> > *Behind the Batla House shootout
> > * Praveen Swami *
> >
> > Charges that the Jamia Nagar encounter was fake belong
> in the Wonderland.
> >
> > *
> >
> > "Sometimes," said the Queen in Lewis
> Carroll's *Alice in Wonderland*, "I've
> > believed as many as six impossible things before
> breakfast."
> >
> > Ever since last month's encounter in New
> Delhi's Jamia Nagar, critics have
> > been claiming that the two men killed by the police
> were innocent students,
> > not Indian Mujahideen terrorists. A number of
> well-meaning commentators and
> > politicians have expressed concern over the encounter.
> Few seem to have
> > paused to wonder if there was, in fact, anything
> mysterious about the
> > shootout. If it was indeed fake, the story would read
> something like this:
> > Hoping to redeem their anti-terrorism credentials and
> whip up anti-Muslim
> > paranoia, the Delhi police shot dead two innocent
> Muslims. For some reason,
> > though, they left a third innocent Muslim, Mohammad
> Saif, alive to tell the
> > tale. Either because of incompetence or to get rid of
> an inconvenient
> > honest
> > officer, depending on who is telling the story — the
> Delhi police also
> > killed one of their own. They also shot another
> officer, but let him live.
> >
> > A riveting fiction? The truth about Batla House is, in
> comparison, mundane.
> >
> > When inspector Mohan Chand Sharma walked through the
> door of the flat where
> > he was to die, all he knew was that he was looking for
> a man with two
> > missing front teeth. Soon after the Gujarat bombings,
> a Bharuch resident
> > contacted the police to report that the vehicles used
> as car bombs in
> > Ahmedabad had been parked by his tenant. Gujarat Crime
> Branch Deputy
> > Commissioner Abhay Chudasma had little to go on, bar
> one small clue: the
> > mobile phone used by the tenant to communicate with
> the landlord. It turned
> > out that the phone went silent after the Ahmedabad
> bombings.
> >
> > Based on the interrogation of suspects, Gujarat police
> investigators
> > determined that the cell phone was one of the five
> used by the perpetrators
> > between July 7 and 26 — the day of the serial
> bombings. They learned that
> > the perpetrators had observed rigorous communication
> security procedures,
> > calling these numbers only from public telephones.
> Between July 16 and July
> > 22, the investigators learned, another of the five
> Gujarat phones had been
> > used in the Jamia Nagar area. This phone had received
> just five calls, all
> > from public phones at Jamia Nagar. Then, on July 24,
> the phone became
> > active
> > again in Ahmedabad.
> >
> > The investigators also found evidence of a second link
> between the
> > Ahmedabad
> > bombings and the Jamia Nagar area. On July 19, the
> Bharuch cell phone
> > received a call from Mumbai, made from an eastern
> Uttar Pradesh number —
> > the
> > sole break in the communication-security procedure.
> Immediately after this,
> > a call was made from the eastern U.P. phone to a
> number at Jamia Nagar,
> > registered to local resident Mohammad Atif Amin. The
> authorities mounted a
> > discreet watch on his phone but decided not to
> question him in the hope
> > that
> > he would again be contacted by the perpetrators.
> >
> > Mumbai police crime branch chief Rakesh Maria made the
> next breakthrough
> > last month, when his investDEFANGED.154>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "reader-list-request at sarai.net"
> <reader-list-request at sarai.net>
> To: reader-list at sarai.net
> Sent: Sunday, 12 October, 2008 7:21:08 PM
> Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 63, Issue 47
> 
> Send reader-list mailing list submissions to
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> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. CPI (M) goons kill RSS swayam-sewak by a crude
> bomb    in Kannur
>       (Aditya Raj Kaul)
>   2. Condemning one person's act;    praising the
> same act by
>       another. Munaafaqat? (Kshmendra Kaul)
>   3. Re: Behind the Batla House shootout - Praveen Swami
> (Aarti Sethi)
>   4. Re: Behind the Batla House shootout - Praveen Swami
>       (Aditya Raj Kaul)
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:29:42 +0530
> From: "Aditya Raj Kaul"
> <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] CPI (M) goons kill RSS swayam-sewak
> by a crude
>     bomb    in Kannur
> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Message-ID:
>    
> <6353c690810112159n1fe64f92occded7f22c5220b0 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
> 
> RSS activist killed, shutdown in Kerala town
> Kannur (Kerala), Oct 11 (IANS) A daylong shutdown was
> called by the
> Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
> Sangh (RSS) in a
> town in Kerala's northern Kannur district Saturday
>after the killing of an
> RSS activist.RSS activist C.K.. Anoop was killed in a bomb
> explosion at
> Eranjoli near Thalassery, about 25 km from here, late
> Friday night. Another
> activist, identified as Rijesh, was admitted to hospital
> with serious
> injuries.
> 
> The RSS has alleged that Anoop was killed in a bomb attack
> carried out by
> workers of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
> 
> The CPI-M has, however, refuted the charge saying that the
> RSS activist was
> killed while handling a country-made bomb himself.
> 
> Police officials in Kannur said they are yet to confirm
> whether the death
> was caused in a bomb attack or in an explosion caused while
> handling a bomb.
> 
> Kannur district has been a hotbed of political violence
> between the CPI-M
> and the BJP-RSS combine. A bout of such violence in March,
> triggered by an
> attack on an RSS leader, claimed at least seven lives.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:28:48 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Condemning one person's
> act;    praising the same
>     act by another. Munaafaqat?
> To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Message-ID:
> <793737.90155.qm at web57208.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> What should one call it when a person condemns an act by
> someone and praises an identical act by someone else?
>  
> ACT A ------ 
>  
> On Oct 6, '08 - Pawan Durrani posts "J&K
> Militants are terrorists : Pakistan President". He
> reproduces the news item and gives the weblink.
>  
> He introduces it with the comment "An interesting and
> important statement from Pakistan President .........".
> 
>  
> (Not so humbly put) Reaction from Inder Salim to Pawan
> Durrani --------- "  WE ALL READ DAILY NEWSPAPERS .
> WE KNOW IT. WHAT IS POINT TO FORWARD IT? UNLESS  THERE IS
> SOMETHING TO ADD . 
> HUMBLY
> IS
> 
> ACT B -------igators held Afzal Usmani, a long-standing
> > lieutenant of ganglord-turned-jihadist Riyaz Bhatkal.
> From Usmani, the
> > investigators learned that top commander
> 'Bashir' and his assault squad
> > left
> > Ahmedabad on July 26 for a safe house at Jamia Nagar.
> Armed with this
> > information, the investigators came to believe that
> Atif Amin either
> > provided Bashir shelter or the two were one and the
> same person. Inspector
> > Sharma was asked to settle the issue.
> >  'Vodaphone salesman'
> >
> > Sub-inspector Dharmindar Kumar was given the unhappy
> task of trudging up
> > the
> > stairs in the sweltering heat, searching for Bashir.
> Dressed in a tie and
> > shirt, just like other members of Sharma's team,
> Kumar pretended to be a
> > salesman for Vodaphone. At the door of Amin's
> flat, he heard noises — and
> > called his boss.
> >
> > According to head constable Balwant Rana, who was by
> Sharma's side, the two
> > men knocked on the front door, identifying themselves
> as police officers.
> > There was no response. Then, the officers walked down
> an 'L' shaped
> > corridor
> > which led to a second door. This door was unlocked.
> Sharma and Rana, as
> > they
> > entered, were fired upon from the front of and to the
> right of the door.
> > When the rest of the special team, armed only with
> small arms, went in to
> > support Sharma and Rana, two terrorists ran out
> through the now-unguarded
> > front door. Saif wisely locked himself up in a toilet.
> >
> > It takes little to see that Sharma's team made
> several tactical errors.
> > However, as anyone who has actually faced hostile fire
> will testify, combat
> > tends not to be orderly. In the United States or
> Europe, a Batla
> > House-style
> > operation would have been carried out by a highly
> trained assault unit
> > equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment.
> Given their
> > resources
> > and training, Sharma and his men did as well as could
> be expected.
> >
> > Judging by Sharma's injuries, as recorded by
> doctors at the Holy Family
> > Hospital in New Friend's Colony and later
> re-examined at the All-India
> > Institute of Medical Sciences' Trauma Centre, he
> was fired at from two
> > directions. One bullet hit him in the left shoulder
> and exited through the
> > left upper arm; the other hit the right side of the
> abdomen, exiting
> > through
> > the hip. The investigators believe that the abdomen
> wound was inflicted
> > with
> > Amin's weapon and the shoulder hit, by Mohammad
> Sajid.
> >
> > Much has been made of a newspaper photograph which
> shows that Sharma's
> > shirt
> > was not covered in blood, with some charging that it
> demonstrates he was
> > shot in the back. Forensic experts, however, note that
> bleeding from
> > firearms injuries takes place through exit wounds —
> not, as in bad pop
> > films, at the point of entry. In the photograph, signs
> of a bullet having
> > ripped through Sharma's shirt are evident on his
> visible shoulder; so, too,
> > is evidence of the profuse bleeding from the back.
> >
> > In some sense, the allegations levelled over the
> encounter tell us more
> > about the critics than the event itself. In part, the
> allegations have been
> > driven by poor reporting and confusion — the
> product, more often than not,
> > by journalists who have not followed the Indian
> Mujahideen story. More
> > important, though, the controversy was driven by the
> Muslim religious
> > right-wing whose myth-making, as politician Arif
> Mohammad Khan recently
> > pointed out, has passed largely unchallenged.
> >
> > In a recent article, the University of Delaware's
> Director of Islamic
> > Studies, Muqtedar Khan, lashed out at the
> "intellectually dishonest"
> > representatives of Muslims who "live in
> denial." "They first deny that
> > there
> > is such a thing as jihadi terrorism," Dr. Khan
> noted, "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."
> >
> > It is easy to rip apart the pseudo-facts that drove
> the claim that the
> > Jamia
> > Nagar encounter was fake — or that the Indian
> Mujahideen is a fiction. Much
> > political work, though, is needed to drain the swamps
> of denial and deceit
> > in which the lies have bred.
> >
> > *Link -
> http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101053621100.htm
> > *
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the
> city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to
> reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe:
> https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive:
> &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
> 
> 
> - ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:21:00 +0530
> From: "Aditya Raj Kaul"
> <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Behind the Batla House shootout
> - Praveen
>     Swami
> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Message-ID:
>    
> <6353c690810120651g1f48d20u93c253865581a49c at mail.gmail.com>
> 
> Just too amusing, Aartiji. When the fact is too hard to
> digest, people start
> deviating towards excuses and encouraging rumours. It for
> sure tells us how
> brilliantly Praveen Swami has exposed the propaganda of
> those few
> "jhollahwaalahs" working at the behest of
> politicians and their bosses and
> enjoying all perks.
> 
> It is just too disturbing to see those "few
> individuals" coming to the
> rescue of Terrorists and their dastardly acts. Where are
> those people now ?
> It would have been interesting if similar words would have
> come against a
> Terrorist like Yasin Malik; who has suddenly become a Godly
> figure for all
> those "few" sitting here in the capital. Maybe,
> remaining in his shadow
> benifits their stomach and pockets; so what if he is a
> terrorist or
> anti-national. Wah !
> 
> You trust street rumours more than an intellectual piece
> which has been
> written on the basis of assimilated report from
> intelligence sources,
> networking and hard research. Do I need say more on your so
> proper and
> honest "verdict" ? After all, Its Aarti Sethi ji
> who has spoken those golden
> words.
> 
> Though I'm no one to defend Praveen Swami; but the fact
> always remains a
> fact. His exceptional - blunt 'on the face'
> articles on Kashmir, Terrorism,
> Intelligence etc. are in no comparison to other writers or
> journalists and
> experts. He exposes them openly. I know it pains you to see
> how such a
> respected commentator argues in favour of the encounter.
> Its just alright.
> Chill :-)
> 
> Note of Caution - There is a political game behind this
> tirade against the
> Police on this encounter. Common citizens,  genuine media
> and even genuine
> activists for that matter shouldn't get entangled in
> this trap which is in
> reality to garner votes.
> 
> I hereby attach only a few letters published in response to
> this honest
> article -
> 
> Opinion
> <http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/11/05hdline.htm> -
> Letters to the
> Editor [image: Printer Friendly
> Page]<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008101154791003.htm&date=2008/10/11/&prd=th&>
> [image: Send this Article to a
> Friend]<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/pgemail.pl?date=2008/10/11/&prd=th&>
> 
> * Batla House shootout *
> 
> It was heartening to read Praveen Swami's analysis of
> the Jamia Nagar
> shootout (October 10). Newspapers and commentators, trying
> to be too
> politically correct, have been spewing a lot of nonsense on
> this issue,
> sullying the dead inspector's name. Rather than
> confronting the real threat
> of home-grown jihad these tactics further muddle the issue
> and foster enmity
> in the community. Policemen who are operating under the
> most trying and
> unenviable circumstances will be demoralised if the media
> castigate them for
> not doing enough or accuse them of overzealous action. Some
> restraint on the
> media glare is needed to let the policeman do his job.
> 
> *Arvind Narayan, *
> 
> *Mauritius *
> * * *
> 
> The death of an honest and brave police officer at the
> hands of terrorists
> is unfortunate. What is more unfortunate is that some
> irresponsible and
> narrow-minded individuals like to see this as the death of
> some "innocent"
> kid at the hands of scheming police officers.
> 
> A terrorist is a terrorist, irrespective of the religion he
> follows.
> Belonging to the "majority" or
> "minority" community does not make his sin
> any smaller.
> 
> *Narendra A. *
> 
> *Bangalore *
> * * *
> 
> The security forces, even without negative publicity, are
> fighting with one
> hand tied behind their back. The fact that a dedicated
> officer became a
> martyr hardly holds any significance for the so-called
> human rights
> activists and an equally sensation-mongering media. Strong
> political and
> public support alone can wipe out this menace. The other
> pressing necessity
> is inculcating basic human values in our children and
> society.
> 
> *R.Unni Krishnan, *
> 
> *Kochi
> *
> 
> Love*
> *Aditya Raj Kaul*
> *
> 
> 
> On 10/12/08, Aarti Sethi <aarti.sethi at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Surely you jest Aditya? I am sure you are fully aware
> of the word on the
> > street about Pravin Swami. The fact that he has
> anything to say about the
> > encounter at all should alert us to the fact that it
> is absolutely fake. No
> > more evidence is needed, than that Pravin the great
> expert hath spoken.
> > Clearly his bosses in dark and mysetrious places are
> feeling the heat being
> > generated by the volume of questions, and so like
> always, he has been
> > instructed to perform his usual ventroloquist act.
> >
> > regards
> > Aarti
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 9:47 AM, Aditya Raj Kaul
> <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> An interesting piece by one of the most renowned
> expert on internal
> >> security
> >> and terrorism, Praveen Swami. It highlights the
> major areas which have
> >> been
> >> missed by those campaigning hard to convert this
> encounter or at least
> >> portray it as fake one. Hope they plan a better
> theory or else revise
> >> their
> >> 'Wonderland' stories. Have a look at
> 'The Hindu' column below which came
> >> out
> >> in today's newspaper.
> >>
> >> Love
> >> Aditya Raj Kaul
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> *Behind the Batla House shootout
> >> * Praveen Swami *
> >>
> >> Charges that the Jamia Nagar encounter was fake
> belong in the Wonderland.
> >>
> >> *
> >>
> >> "Sometimes," said the Queen in Lewis
> Carroll's *Alice in Wonderland*,
> >> "I've
> >> believed as many as six impossible things before
> breakfast."
> >>
> >> Ever since last month's encounter in New
> Delhi's Jamia Nagar, critics have
> >> been claiming that the two men killed by the
> police were innocent
> >> students,
> >> not Indian Mujahideen terrorists. A number of
> well-meaning commentators
> >> and
> >> politicians have expressed concern over the
> encounter. Few seem to have
> >> paused to wonder if there was, in fact, anything
> mysterious about the
> >> shootout. If it was indeed fake, the story would
> read something like this:
> >> Hoping to redeem their anti-terrorism credentials
> and whip up anti-Muslim
> >> paranoia, the Delhi police shot dead two innocent
> Muslims. For some
> >> reason,
> >> though, they left a third innocent Muslim,
> Mohammad Saif, alive to tell
> >> the
> >> tale. Either because of incompetence or to get rid
> of an inconvenient
> >> honest
> >> officer, depending on who is telling the story —
> the Delhi police also
> >> killed one of their own. They also shot another
> officer, but let him live.
> >>
> >> A riveting fiction? The truth about Batla House
> is, in comparison,
> >> mundane.
> >>
> >> When inspector Mohan Chand Sharma walked through
> the door of the flat
> >> where
> >> he was to die, all he knew was that he was looking
> for a man with two
> >> missing front teeth. Soon after the Gujarat
> bombings, a Bharuch resident
> >> contacted the police to report that the vehicles
> used as car bombs in
> >> Ahmedabad had been parked by his tenant. Gujarat
> Crime Branch Deputy
> >> Commissioner Abhay Chudasma had little to go on,
> bar one small clue: the
> >> mobile phone used by the tenant to communicate
> with the landlord. It
> >> turned
> >> out that the phone went silent after the Ahmedabad
> bombings.
> >>
> >> Based on the interrogation of suspects, Gujarat
> police investigators
> >> determined that the cell phone was one of the five
> used by the
> >> perpetrators
> >> between July 7 and 26 — the day of the serial
> bombings. They learned that
> >> the perpetrators had observed rigorous
> communication security procedures,
> >> calling these numbers only from public telephones.
> Between July 16 and
> >> July
> >> 22, the investigators learned, another of the five
> Gujarat phones had been
> >> used in the Jamia Nagar area. This phone had
> received just five calls, all
> >> from public phones at Jamia Nagar. Then, on July
> 24, the phone became
> >> active
> >> again in Ahmedabad.
> >>
> >> The investigators also found evidence of a second
> link between the
> >> Ahmedabad
> >> bombings and the Jamia Nagar area. On July 19, the
> Bharuch cell phone
> >> received a call from Mumbai, made from an eastern
> Uttar Pradesh number —
> >> the
> >> sole break in the communication-security
> procedure. Immediately after
> >> this,
> >> a call was made from the eastern U.P. phone to a
> number at Jamia Nagar,
> >> registered to local resident Mohammad Atif Amin.
> The authorities mounted a
> >> discreet watch on his phone but decided not to
> question him in the hope
> >> that
> >> he would again be contacted by the perpetrators.
> >>
> >> Mumbai police crime branch chief Rakesh Maria made
> the next breakthrough
> >> last month, when his investigators held Afzal
> Usmani, a long-standing
> >> lieutenant of ganglord-turned-jihadist Riyaz
> Bhatkal. From Usmani, the
> >> investigators learned that top commander
> 'Bashir' and his assault squad
> >> left
> >> Ahmedabad on July 26 for a safe house at Jamia
> Nagar. Armed with this
> >> information, the investigators came to believe
> that Atif Amin either
> >> provided Bashir shelter or the two were one and
> the same person. Inspector
> >> Sharma was asked to settle the issue.
> >>  'Vodaphone salesman'
> >>
> >> Sub-inspector Dharmindar Kumar was given the
> unhappy task of trudging up
> >> the
> >> stairs in the sweltering heat, searching for
> Bashir. Dressed in a tie and
> >> shirt, just like other members of Sharma's
> team, Kumar pretended to be a
> >> salesman for Vodaphone. At the door of Amin's
> flat, he heard noises — and
> >> called his boss.
> >>
> >> According to head constable Balwant Rana, who was
> by Sharma's side, the
> >> two
> >> men knocked on the front door, identifying
> themselves as police officers.
> >> There was no response. Then, the officers walked
> down an 'L' shaped
> >> corridor
> >> which led to a second door.. This door was
> unlocked. Sharma and Rana, as
> >> they
> >> entered, were fired upon from the front of and to
> the right of the door.
> >> When the rest of the special team, armed only with
> small arms, went in to
> >> support Sharma and Rana, two terrorists ran out
> through the now-unguarded
> >> front door. Saif wisely locked himself up in a
> toilet.
> >>
> >> It takes little to see that Sharma's team made
> several tactical errors.
> >> However, as anyone who has actually faced hostile
> fire will testify,
> >> combat
> >> tends not to be orderly. In the United States or
> Europe, a Batla
> >> House-style
> >> operation would have been carried out by a highly
> trained assault unit
> >> equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance
> equipment. Given their
> >> resources
> >> and training, Sharma and his men did as well as
> could be expected.
> >>
> >> Judging by Sharma's injuries, as recorded by
> doctors at the Holy Family
> >> Hospital in New Friend's Colony and later
> re-examined at the All-India
> >> Institute of Medical Sciences' Trauma Centre,
> he was fired at from two
> >> directions. One bullet hit him in the left
> shoulder and exited through the
> >> left upper arm; the other hit the right side of
> the abdomen, exiting
> >> through
> >> the hip. The investigators believe that the
> abdomen wound was inflicted
> >> with
> >> Amin's weapon and the shoulder hit, by
> Mohammad Sajid.
> >>
> >> Much has been made of a newspaper photograph which
> shows that Sharma's
> >> shirt
> >> was not covered in blood, with some charging that
> it demonstrates he was
> >> shot in the back. Forensic experts, however, note
> that bleeding from
> >> firearms injuries takes place through exit wounds
> — not, as in bad pop
> >> films, at the point of entry. In the photograph,
> signs of a bullet having
> >> ripped through Sharma's shirt are evident on
> his visible shoulder; so,
> >> too,
> >> is evidence of the profuse bleeding from the back.
> >>
> >> In some sense, the allegations levelled over the
> encounter tell us more
> >> about the critics than the event itself. In part,
> the allegations have
> >> been
> >> driven by poor reporting and confusion — the
> product, more often than not,
> >> by journalists who have not followed the Indian
> Mujahideen story. More
> >> important, though, the controversy was driven by
> the Muslim religious
> >> right-wing whose myth-making, as politician Arif
> Mohammad Khan recently
> >> pointed out, has passed largely unchallenged.
> >>
> >> In a recent article, the University of
> Delaware's Director of Islamic
> >> Studies, Muqtedar Khan, lashed out at the
> "intellectually dishonest"
> >> representatives of Muslims who "live in
> denial." "They first deny that
> >> there
> >> is such a thing as jihadi terrorism," Dr.
> Khan noted, "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."
> >>
> >> It is easy to rip apart the pseudo-facts that
> drove the claim that the
> >> Jamia
> >> Nagar encounter was fake — or that the Indian
> Mujahideen is a fiction.
> >> Much
> >> political work, though, is needed to drain the
> swamps of denial and deceit
> >> in which the lies have bred.
> >>
> >> *Link -
> http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101053621100.htm
> >> *
> >> _________________________________________
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