[Reader-list] Jamia Nagar Encounter: Was it a Recce or a Planned Raid

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

In light of the continuing discussions on the Jamia Nagar/Batla House  
encounter - here is a recent text by Aziz Burney, Editor, Rashtriya  
Sahra (Urdu), Delhi. It appeared yesterday on Kafila.org

regards

Shuddha
--------------------------------------------

Was it a recce or a planned raid?
Aziz Burney,Editor,  Rashtriya Sahara (Urdu), Delhi
http://kafila.org/2008/10/14/was-it-a-recce-or-a-planned-raid/

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anything viewed from  
various angles presents various shapes. It is also a fact that your  
angle of view determines to a large extent the picture registered by  
your brain. An askew angle of view is bound to distort the picture.  
Reality defies comprehension without proper perspective. To date, we  
have not been able to understand what kind of picture the Delhi  
police is trying to draw in order to explain the incidents of  
September 19 as they happened.

There can be only three possibilities about the ‘encounter’: (1) it  
was planned and could not be properly executed; (2) it was a I recce’  
that tamed into a premature clash due to someone’s misplaced  
enthusiasm (3) it was a hurriedly planned exercise under orders to  
“do something, anything, about the Delhi blasts to appease the angry  
opposition parties and save the honour and position of the minister  
held responsible. Since the police, or any other authority for that  
matter, shall never acknowledge the third possibility which can only  
emerge from a fair and thorough enquiry, we take up the first two  
possibilities to one of which the police will have to stick once and  
for all.

The very first version (and how self-congratulatory it was) given out  
by the police was that they had successfully “worked out” the case  
after ‘painstaking’ investigations. This would mean that the raid at  
L-18 was planned in advance after the police had finally determined  
the identities of “terrorists” and their respective roles in Delhi  
blasts. However, after serious questions were raised about the manner  
in which the two boys were brutally killed and one of their important  
and highly decorated officers lost his life (there is now a mystery  
shrouding the death of Inspector Sharma as well) the police did a  
turnaround and said that it was basically a recce (reconnaissance)  
undertaken to take stock of the situation and determine and confirm  
the identities of the suspects. The subject, in its present shape,  
requires a very detailed probe and analysis. But the pivotal point  
for our discussion today is the presence on the spot at the material  
time of a senior police officer, namely. Alok Kumar, Deputy  
Commissioner of Police posted in the Special Operations cell of Delhi  
Police. Now, a DCP is a Class-I officer of Govt. of India. In the  
official hierarchy, the position of a class-I officer is that of an  
official representative and spokesperson of the government. In  
certain postings all class-I officers, be they from administrative or  
police services, enjoy even judicial powers. A DCP, posted anywhere  
as a police officer, is considered to be the head of his branch or  
section. He is responsible in every way for all officers and men  
under his command and even routine matters and day to day working of  
his unit requires his sanction and approval. Seen in this light, the  
presence of DCP Alok Kumar outside L-18 on September 19, 2008  
bespeaks a well-organized, well-orchestrated and well-supervised  
operation to achieve one of the three above-mentioned possibilities.

As a general rule, senior officers are not supposed to accompany the  
raiding parties unless the nature of operation is so sensitive as to  
necessitate their presence for various reasons ranging from  
answerability to public and/or government to ensuring the success of  
the operation for a political exigency due to immense public pressure  
which was the case at the time. In this scenario, DCP ALOK KUMAR IS  
PERSONALLY, OFFICIALLY AND TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INCIDENTS OF  
SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 IN GENERAL AND FOR THE AVOIDABLE, UNFORTUNATE AND  
UNTIMELY DEATH OF INSPECTOR SHARMA IN PARTICULAR.

And DCP Alok Kumar has not been questioned by anyone, far less by the  
electronic media, a section of which has made such a song and dance  
about the ‘eyewitness’ account of head constable Balwant Rana who was  
admitted to a ‘trauma’ center of a reputed govt. hospital for a  
laceration on his right arm while the fatally wounded Inspector  
Sharma was taken to an ill equipped charitable hospital despite the  
fact that two state of the art specialty hospitals viz. Escorts and  
Apollo were respectively two and seven minutes away. We have  
collected some vitally important material regarding the background  
and the manner in which Inspector Sharma was injured and taken to  
hospital and it will be brought forth after a few more facts are  
verified. For now, we pose the following questions, which have to be  
answered considering the presence of Alok Kumar on the scene:

1. Alok Kumar was not only the senior-most officer on the spot but  
the official head of the unit as well; and yet SI Dharmendra  
communicated with Inspector Sharma. Why?

2. Since he was personally supervising the raid, why did he allow  
Inspector Sharma to confront the perceived terrorists without having  
a bulletproof vest on?

3. If it was a mere recce why was he standing in full public view  
with a drawn gun in hand?

4. Where was he when there was exchange of fire allegedly on the  
fourth floor?

5. Did he follow Inspector Sharma and head constable Balwant Rana  
into the building?

6. Why didn’t he help his injured inspector or accompany him to the  
hospital?

7. Why has he not come forward to give a firsthand account of the  
entire incident?

8. The police initially rejoiced and proclaimed that the raid had  
been successful and the case had been worked out, and yet the name of  
Alok Kumar was nowhere mentioned. Why? Was he on a different kind of  
mission?

Answers to these questions will go a long way in clearing the air of  
doubts and give credit where credit is due. It is not an insoluble  
mystery and viewed from a correct perspective things will fall into  
proper places and all the pieces of jigsaw will fit together to form  
a logical picture. But let the police decide this way or that. Was it  
a recce or a planned raid?