Encounter -- Jamia students don't believe police story

Encounter -- Jamia students don't believe police story
NIRMALA GANAPATHY

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 26: There is anger, frustration and most of all a sense of being wronged. For Nishat Nayazi and his group of Muslim friends from Jamia, who live in Batla House, the arrest of the suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militant just confirms their ``theory.''

``This is a conspiracy. The government is against Muslims,'' says Nishat Nayazi, a BCom second-year student, who adds that police are now trying to victimise Jamia students and those in the Muslim dominated-area. ``They are now trying to sensitise the Batla House area just like the Jama Masjid and Daryaganj area. They look for ISI agents in these areas but not in Paharganj. Why is that?'' he adds.

In a 20-minute operation, Delhi Police claimed to have shot dead Abu Samal, one of the six Lashkar-e-Toiba militants said to be responsible for the Red Fort assault in a flat in Batla House. Samal had reportedly told the landlord that he was a student in Jamia Millia.

Nayazi and his group of friends have been on the road since 10 in the morning after they got a call from a friend about the shooting. They have talked to other students and tried to find out what happened. And they firmly believe that the police uniform and other documents, found in the alleged militant's room, were planted by police. ``Why can't a Kashmiri or even a Pakistani stay here. Do they automatically become militants?'' asks Mohammed Zubair.

Another student who calls himself Prince, and has been in the area for 11 years, says he knows the other two students who shared the flat. ``The other two who are students have gone home. They are students. ``If they were militants what were they doing in the same city? All this is because police did not get any clues,'' he says.

According to them, nobody in the area believes the man who was shot was a militant.

After their day-long vigil, the students come off the roads at 6pm to break their fast. Students sit in a little room and over grapes and pakoras continue to discuss the shootout. They find it difficult to forget some incidents. They remember, for example, the incident where police broke into Jamia and beat up students. And the time the Imam of the mosque in Jamia, they point out, was labelled an ISI agent.

But one thing they are all agreed upon is that they will now be harassed by police. Among their group is a Kashmiri student. He can hardly contain his anger. ``Look at me. Do I look like a Kashmiri? No, I don't. That's why I haven't been shot at or arrested,'' he says, getting angrier and angrier. ``There was a carefree atmosphere among students. That's over now.''