[Reader-list] Mainstream Media Questions Delhi Encounter Killings

[Pawan Durani]

Hello Shivam,
An interesting talk going around is the connection between the blasts and
"Countercurrents" . In this context please visit the site

http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/09/22/indian-mujahideen-countercurrents-part-2/

Offstumped has uncovered an interesting detail that on July 8th
2008<http://keralaletter.blogspot.com/2008/07/hackers-immobilize-countercurrents.html>
the
editor of CounterCurrents reported that his site was hacked. Subsequently
on July 9th 2008 <http://keralaletter.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html> the
site came back up.

Now it is important to note that the first Indian Mujahideen e-mail from a
hacked wi-fi account came on the eve of the Gujarat  Blasts on 26th July
2008 and the India TV News email on 31st July. Also note that the Jaipur
Blasts email was from cyber cafe and not from a hacked wi-fi.

This raises the intriguing question of

Who compromised CounterCurrents on July 8th ?

What investigations did CounterCurrents conduct on this alleged incident of
hacking and what steps did it take ?

The FIRST PART was here :

http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/09/20/indian-mujahideen-countercurrents-potential-nexus/


Indian Mujahideen & CounterCurrents - Potential
nexus<http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/09/20/indian-mujahideen-countercurrents-potential-nexus/>

The famed 5 e-mails from the Indian Mujahideen have been making all the news
as media and public
attention<http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/09/19/war-on-terror-offstumped-salute-to-indias-pride/>
have
been turned away from an earlier less reported and even less investigated
event.

For weeks now Offstumped has been researching in collaboration with others
the unexplained 6th email which was sent on the 31st July 2008.

This e-mail was sent from the same email id alarbi_gujarat at yahoo.com that
was used to send the Ahmedabad Blasts email however it was by faking the
from address using SMTP instead of using the Yahoo web mail account
directly.

The contents of this email have been sparsely reported in the
media<http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:IN_ZUXkXNAAJ:www.nerve.in/news:253500150540+%22india+tv%22+bomb+threat&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us>
and
have mainly to do with a bomb threat to India TV News.

Now along comes news that the latest e-mail from the Indian Mujahideen has
text lifted<http://publication.samachar.com/pub_article.php?id=2674271&navname=General%20&moreurl=http://publication.samachar.com/hindustantimes/general/hindustantimes.php&homeurl=http://www.samachar.com>from
an article on thehoot.org, a delhi based Indian News watchdog (first brought
toOffstumped's attention by
Prasanna<http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/09/18/lay-off-mangalore/#comment-29063>
).

Now the news story in the HT on this also alludes to the fact the
thehoot.org is not a well known site, a fact attested to by this blogger for
not having heard of thehoot before this. So it stands to reason that the
lifting of the text may not have happened from thehoot.org
directly<http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/searchdetail.php?sid=3302&bg=1>
but
from other sites that reproduced the original article on thehoot.

Strangely enough less than 20 sites have reproduced this original article
and first amongst them is
countercurrents.org<http://www.countercurrents.org/shahina060908.htm>,
a radical left leaning Communal Socialist rag-tag packed with prominent
apologists for Islamists like Ram Puniyani, Shabnam Hashmi and others.

Now here comes the clincher, this is where the 6th e-mail is important.

That e-mail did not originate from yahoo instead it originated from a U.S.
based Internet Hosting Company called DreamHost.com.

*Received: by tejava.dreamhost.com (Postfix, from userid 1473975)** id
7ED4D9865C; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:54:28 -0700 (PDT)*

So whats the connection here ?

Well countercurrents.org is hosted on DreamHost as
well<http://whois.domaintools.com/countercurrents.org>
.

*CounterCurrents on **Jaipur
Blasts*<http://www.google.com/search?ned=in&hl=en&ned=in&q=jaipur+blasts+site%3Acountercurrents.org&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web>

*CounterCurrents on Bangalore
Blasts<http://www.google.com/search?q=bangalore+blasts+site%3Acountercurrents.org&num=100&hl=en&sa=2>
*

*CounterCurrents on Ahmedabad
Blasts<http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=ahmedabad+blasts+site%3Acountercurrents.org>
*

*And finally this once again from Apologists par excellence Ram Puniyani and
Shabnam <http://www.countercurrents.org/hashmi160908.htm> Hashmi in the
immideate aftermath of the Delhi Blasts.*

When one adds the fact that CounterCurrents has been issuing Indian
Mujahideen's most passionate apologies starting from Jaipur Blasts to every
single incident ever since,

with the fact that one of the emails from the Indian Mujahideen also
originated from the same hosting site as CounterCurrents,

with the fact that it also prominently carried thehoot article which
contributed content to the latest e-mail

*it raises damning questions if there exists a nexus between someone at
CounterCurrents and the Indian Mujahideen ?*

*Offstumped demands that DreamHost.com be asked to verify the source of the
6th e-mail and CounterCurrents and its prominent apologists be investigated
to establish if indeed someone may have been inspiring the Terrorists in
private<http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/08/17/war-on-terror-investigate-the-apologists/>
while
they apologize for them in
public<http://offstumped.nationalinterest.in/2008/05/15/jaipur-blasts-expose-more-useful-idiots-and-still-more-dangerous-consequences/>
.*

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 10:57 PM, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्
<mail at shivamvij.com>wrote:

> Mainstream Media Questions Delhi Encounter Killings
>
> By L. George
>
> 25 September, 2008
> Countercurrents.org
> http://www.countercurrents.org/george250908.htm
>
> Finally it has happened: the main stream media in India has for the
> first time come out with something other than the 'official version'
> of the encounter killings that have taken place in the country.
>
> NDTV Report
>
> An NDTV report with the headline 'Cover-up charges cling to terror
> probe' has said that Delhi's latest terror spectre throws up
> contrasting images. A police officer -- one of the finest -- shot 3
> times. And, young, educated, fun-loving men who, the police say, are
> deadly terrorists.
>
> The police are convinced that Atif and his young group, most of them
> in their 20s with the youngest just 17, is responsible for all the
> major blasts in India this year and the death of nearly 150 people.
>
> But now, a group of lawyers and human rights activists are raising
> questions. They ask who are the two missing men, who escaped from the
> flat in Batla house on the day of encounter. And how could they
> possibly escape when the only way out was a narrow staircase and there
> were several policemen in the area.
>
> The other point is that the profiles of these young men seem to
> indicate terror was the farthest thing in their minds. They were
> regular college-going students.
>
> One of those arrested, Zeeshan, was taking giving his exams on the day
> of the encounter. He came on TV to surrender. Why didn't he run away?,
> asks NDTV. The police say they have evidence that he planted the bomb
> at Delhi's Barakhamba Road.
>
> Another alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative Saqib was also
> arrested. A gold medalist in economics honours from Jamia Millia
> University, he was a regular on Orkut. He maintained a profile like
> most users do and had a wide circle of friends.
>
> Cops claim the 23-year-old was involved in both Ahmedabad and Delhi
> blasts. Saqib's family has countered the police claims and furnished
> documents to show that Saquib appeared for six exams from the 23rd of
> July to the 28th July -- the time that the police claim he was
> planning the blasts.
>
> Shakib's brother says: "He was the topper in his class for the last two
> years."
>
> The house where the men were staying and its caretaker are also under
> the scanner. The caretaker, who has worked in the PWD for several
> years, insists that he gave the details of the men staying at his home
> to the police almost a month before the blasts.
>
> However, the police have now arrested him for forging these documents.
> His son has also been arrested for alleged nexus with the terrorists.
>
> There are several such questions to which there are still no easy
> answers. And the police know they will have to find hard evidence to
> back each of their claims. However, they say the death of Inspector
> Sharma proves there was no fake encounter.
>
> Mail Today
>
> The Mali Today has also come out with a version raising many questions
> about the encounter:
>
> It says two eyewitnesses of the September 19 cell action at Jamia
> Nagar have presented a version of the event that is at complete
> variance with what has been offered by Delhi Police.
>
> Their reconstruction of the event, which indicates a scuffle had
> probably taken place before the shots were fired, many also explain
> why Jamia Nagar residents are not buying the police theory that the
> team has either eliminated or arrested the men allegedly behind the
> bomb blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.
>
> This version given to MAIL TODAY on the condition of anonymity,
> squares up with the hitherto unreported autopsy report on Sharma and
> the nature of wounds on the bodies of the two young men killed by the
> Special Cell of the Delhi Police. The autopsy report on Sharma, which
> is with the Headlines Today, says he was shot at from extremely close
> range, no more than a few centimeters from him. he was hit by three
> bullets. All of them entered through the back and followed a
> top-to-down trajectory.
>
> The body of one of the 'terrorists' bears injury marks, sharp wounds
> and multiple internal injuries in the stomach. Doctors say such
> injuries are usually attributed to a scuffle, a violent physical
> assault. Someone may even have stamped on him. His flatmate Mohammed
> Sajid also dead, was apparently shot in the head. Could his death too
> have occurred during the scuffle?
>
> Further, could Inspector Sharma have been injured during the
> fisticuffs that ensued between the alleged Delhi bombers and the
> policemen who were raiding supposed terrorist hideouts? Is it possible
> that he suffered the injuries when a bullet went off accidentally
> during the scuffle?
>
> There is no way to find out the kind of bullet injury that Sharma
> suffered. No bullets were found on his body during his autopsy. The
> medical bulletin of Holy family Hospital, where he was taken first,
> said no "foreign bodies were found in his chest and abdomen.
>
> Mail Today took exhaustive eyewitness accounts of the police action on
> September 19. Eyewitnesses, who live in the immediate vicinity of
> L-18, Batla House - the alleged IM hideout - said the Special Cell
> team that raided the scene of action brought two young men to the
> ground floor from their fourth-floor flat. they had a verbal
> altercation with the two men and killed them after some of them
> realised Sharma had been shot.
>
> Jamia Nagar residents had been seeing heightened activity by the
> policemen in civilian clothes for about a week before the police
> action. Yet, they were taken aback when a group of policemen in
> civvies surrounded L-18, Batla House, on September 19, for they had
> not seen any suspicious activity in their building. It is hard to keep
> secrets in the rabbit warren of apartment blocks in Jamia Nagar.
>
> A member of the Special Cell first went up to the fourth-floor flat
> occupied by Atif and Sajid, pretending to be a cellphone salesman. the
> young men inside the flat did not receive the undercover policeman
> cordially. They entered into an argument with sub-inspector
> Ddharmender, who was pretending to be the salesman.
>
> All this took place in front of the neighbours who had come out onto
> the balconies of their flats on hearing the commotion. Reacting
> immediately when the arguments started, the policemen waiting
> downstairs rushed up.
>
> None of them had their guns out. Clearly, they were not expecting any
> armed resistance. One of the men, whom the eyewitnesses were able to
> identify after seeing his images on television, Sharma.
>
> Speaking from behind a grill that covers the fourth-floor staircase at
> L-18, Sharma yelled at all the neighbours who had come out of their
> houses to go indoors because they could get hurt in the "firing".
> Residents of the area followed his instructions. But the eyewitnesses,
> being quoted by the Mail Today, watched the goings-on from behind
> their toilet windows.
>
> They saw only two men in the flat. that leaves the man who was
> arrested from the spot, Mohammed Saif, and the two men who reportedly
> escaped during the police action unaccounted for.
>
> They saw Sharma's men drag Atif and Sajid to the ground floor landing.
> The two men, who were subsequently killed, appeared to be in panic and
> unarmed at the time. No one could see what happened thereafter as the
> partly covered ground floor landing was not in their line of vision.
>
> The eyewitness could hear the policemen hurling abuses at the two
> youngmen. This was followed by gunshots. Then someone shouted, "Sahab
> ko goli lag gayi (the boss has been shot)." The young men could not be
> hard in this commotion. After sometime, the eyewitnesses hear more
> gunshots. The policemen came into the view of our eyewitnesses. They
> were dragging the bodies of two men upstairs.
>
> Around the same time, they saw sub-inspector Dharmender, and another
> policeman leading Sharma out of the building. The eyewitness couldn't
> figure out the extent of Sharma's injury from what they saw.
>
> The bodies of two youngmen, meanwhile, were dragged up to their flat
> by the policemen. Then they wrapped the bodies with cloth.
>
> According to the eyewitnesses, after the two bodies were taken away
> and piled into a police van, a group of policemen materialised out of
> the blue with three young men they had rounded up, seemingly from
> within the L-18 flats. They were unable to make out where the men came
> from. One of them, it appears now, was Mohammed Saif. He is now in the
> police custody.
>
> The reconstruction by the eyewitnesses posed some questions. Why did
> two young men, and their alleged accomplices, not flee the scene or
> clean up their laptops even after everyone in the neighbourhood was
> aware of the heightened police presence in the area?
>
> Why did the policemen not have their guns out when they rushed up to
> the flat after the argument broke out between sub-inspector Dharmender
> and the two men?
>
> Was Sharma shot at by the alleged terrorists or was he a victim of
> collateral damage because he happened to be in the range of a
> ricocheting bullet?
>
> 'Multiple masterminds'
>
>
> We are also forced to take a new look at the announcements made by the
> Police.
>
>
> After killing the two youths Atif and Sajjid in Delhi, the special
> police cell chief Karnal Singh claimed that they were the masterminds
> behind the bombings of Uttar Pradesh courts (23 November, 2007),
> Jaipur bombings (13 May, 2008), Ahmedabad bombings (26 July, 2008),
> and Delhi bombings (13 September, 2008).
>
> He also claimed that they were behind the Varanassi bombings of 2006
> and Gorakhpur bombings of 2007. If what the Delhi police claim is
> true, what about the alleged mastermind that the Gujarat police
> arrested in connection with Ahmedabad bombings, Abu Basher?
>
> Gujarat Police claimed that he was the master mind of all these bombings.
>
> On September 24th, Mumbai Police have also arrested new 'masterminds'
> of all these blasts. Rajastan Police had arrested a cyber cafe owner,
> Shahbas Hussain. They also claim that he was the mastermind of the
> Jaipur blasts. Whom should we believe?
>
>
> In the light of these revelations and views people in India and around
> the world may adopt a new stand: not to swallow the official versions
> as such.
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