[Reader-list] FW: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Fwd: Some Questions About The Delhi Encounter

[Aarti Sethi]

Thank you for posting this Sabitha.

I have some more questions to add:

:From all reports and accounts it appears that the media was tipped off well
in advance of this operation. So much so that cables were laid on the ground
to ensure clear transmission. How is it that the "dreaded terrorists" holed
up in this flat did not get tipped off by this operation in the vicinity and
flee then, and indeed waited to leave till after the operation had begun? It
seems very strange that they would wait in this flat, while the media
gathered, the police arrived, and then run from a house in which there is
only one stair which had been taken over by the police.

: A report in the Indian Express quotes JC Singh as saying that, "Inspector
Sharma had the input but not the specifically of the right address - there
was some confusion about the house in which the militants were holed up."
Which means that the media was called and arrived in Jamia Nagar while the
police wandered about looking for the right house? And again the
"terrorists" waited while this was going on, 10 OB vans in the vicnity did
not tip them off?

: The Indian Express also carries an article which quotes an unnamed police
source describing the incident as "a suprise attack by the militants." To
thwart such surprise attacks the police have been askedto carry their
weapons with them at all times. How is an incident planned by the police, to
which the media has been invited beforehand, a "surprise attack"?






On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 1:47 PM, sabitha t p <sabitha_tp at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> --- On Sun, 21/9/08, satchidanandan k <satchida at hotmail.com> wrote:
> From: bobby.kunhu at gmail.com
> To: fourth-estate-critique at googlegroups.com;
> grassroots-in-action at googlegroups.com
> Subject: FOURTH ESTATE CRITIQUE Fwd: Some Questions About The Delhi
> Encounter
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ajay <ajaydalit at gmail.com>
> Date: 2008/9/21
> Subject: Some Questions About The Delhi Encounter
>
> Some Questions About The Delhi Encounter
> By Shabnam Hashmi, Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal, Arshad
> Alam & Pallavi Deka
> 21 September, 2008
> Countercurrents.org
>
> A team comprising activists, academicians and journalists visited the site
> of the police operation against alleged terrorists staying in an apartment
> in Jamia Nagar in the afternoon of 20.09.2008 (Saturday). Two alleged
> terrorists Atif and Sajid, along with Mohan Chand Sharma, an inspector of
> the Delhi Police's Special Cell died in the operation while a third alleged
> terrorist was arrested.
>
> On the basis of our interactions with the local residents, eye witnesses
> and the reports which have appeared in the media, we would like to pose the
> following questions:
>
> 1) It has been widely reported (and not refuted by the Police) that in
> early August this year Atif, who is described by the Delhi Police as the
> mastermind behind the recent terrorist bombings in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and
> Delhi, underwent a police verification exercise along with his four
> roommates in order to rent the apartment they were staying in Jamia Nagar.
> All the five youth living in the apartment submitted to the Delhi police
> their personal details, including permanent address, driving license
> details, address of the house they previously stayed in, all of which were
> found to be accurate.
> Is it conceivable that the alleged kingpin behind the terrorist Indian
> Mujahideen outfit would have wanted to undergo a police verification- for
> whatever purpose- just a week after the Ahmedabad blasts and a month before
> the bombings in Delhi?
>
> 2) The four-storeyed house L-18 in Jamia Nagar, where the alleged
> terrorists were staying, has only one access point, through the stair case,
> which is covered by an iron grill. It is impossible to leave the house
> except from the staircase. By all reports, the staircase was taken over by
> the Special Cell and/ or other agencies during the counter-terror operation.
> The house, indeed the entire block, was cordoned off at the time of the
> operation.
> How then was it then possible, as claimed by the police, for two alleged
> terrorists to escape the premises during the police operation?
>
> 3) The media has quoted 'police sources' as having informed them that the
> Special Cell was fully aware about the presence of dreaded terrorists,
> involved in the bombings in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, staying in the
> apartment that was raided.
> Why was the late Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, a veteran of dozens of
> encounter operations, the only officer in the operation not wearing a bullet
> proof vest? Was this due to over-confidence or is there something else to
> his mysterious death during the operation? Will the forensic report of the
> bullets that killed Inspector Sharma be made public?
>
> 4) There are reports that towards the end of the counter-terror operation,
> some policemen climbed on the roof of L-18 and fired several rounds in the
> air. Other policemen were seen breaking windows and even throwing flower
> pots to the ground from flats adjacent or opposite to L-18
> Why was the police firing in the air and why did it indulge in destruction
> of property around L-18 after the encounter?
>
> 5) The police officials claim that an AK-47 and pistols were recovered from
> L-18.
> What was the weapon that killed Inspector Sharma? Was the AK-47 used at all
> and by whom? Going by some reports that have appeared (see 'Times of India',
> 20.09.08), the AK-47s have been used by the police only. Is it not strange
> that alleged terrorists did not use a more deadly and sophisticated weapon
> like the AK-47, which they purportedly possessed, preferring to use pistols?
>
> We feel that there are far too many loose ends in the current story of the
> police encounter at L-18 in Jamia Nagar. We demand that a fair, impartial
> and independent probe into the incident be initiated at the earliest to
> answer the above questions as also any other ones that arise from the
> contradictions of the case.
> Signed/- Shabnam Hashmi, Satya Sivaraman, Manisha Sethi, Tanweer Fazal,
> Arshad Alam, Pallavi Deka
>
>
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