[Reader-list] 'Terrorist' encounter at Batla House

[ambarien al qadar]

I was at the Mass Communication Research Center, Jamia, when the news
 of the 'encounter' came in.
 Late into the afternoon, when we were absolutely sure that the
 gunshots fell silent...(because we were constantly getting
 'eyewitness' accounts that two 'terrorists' had been killed and their
 bodies had been dragged into the PCR van)...I was walking towards
 Zakir Nagar through Batla House.
 The road that leads to Batla House from Jamia Nagar was being manned
 by some six hundred policemen at the turn-about. People in the
 neighbourhood are now tensed about the possibility of policemen
 dressed as civilians combing the area.
 As I walked, I overheard the policemen say.."Ram-Ram bolo..Ram-Ram" .
 Some of them directly looked into my eye, gun toting and
 macho-posturing, and muttered some extra words under their breath.

 Apart from the media battery and police force, the roads were largely
 deserted. In one of the bylanes, a group of some eight year olds stood
 awestruck... they believed they had been witnesses to some film
 shooting. Earlier in the day, their teachers at the Batla House
 Government School had asked them to leave immediately once the news of
 the encounter came in.
 And one of the kids wondered what could have happened if one of the
 'terrorists' (out of the two the police claimed had fled)...got into
 the school and held them at gunpoint? Others said they felt equally
 scared outside because there was so much chaos, Nobody knew where to
 go..and what could happen.
 There was an unmistaken awareness of 'narratives of terror' and the
 bunch of eight year olds endlessly predicted the outcome.

 The neighbouhood is far too familiar with circumstances of young men
 who come to Delhi from remote corners of UP and Bihar to 'build' a
 life. People here are casting doubts over the operation and claim that
 Atif was as normal a boy as any twenty-four year old could be...that
 anyone of them could be easily targetted and made out to be a
 terrorist in the future.

 This morning between 8am-9.30am, Headlines Today was running a story
 about the surrender of Zeeshan (the other 25 yr old student who the
 police claims is one of the two terrorists who managed to escape)at
 its headquarters.
 "His surrender itself raises questions about the claims of the
 police"...and while we were discussing this, the channel went on to
 scramble mode..and the transmission stopped. It is still stuck.
 One hour later, It is a still shot of Atif's elder brother in
 Headlines Today Studio. In his interview he had said that he did not
 believe the police claims. I checked all the other channels...nobody
 was running this story.
 All of them were mourning the death of Mohan Chand Sharma; the
 encounter specialist in Delhi Police. Patriotic scores like 'aye mere
 watan ke logon...' form a poignant backdrop against which a nation is
 made out to mourn.
 I am also deeply saddened by his death like everybody else but am
 wondering how certain other stories that are emerging since yesterday,
 have been..or will be.. hushed up.


Ambarien Al Qadar