Had they told us, we could have been of big help to cops: Jamia Nagar residents

Irfanullah Khan, convener of the Jamia Nagar Coordination Committee and member of the Samata Party, said: “We have held meetings with Central ministers and even the Home Minister (Shivraj Patil) about the problems we face. Had the police told us about the presence of terrorists here, we could have been of big help to them.”

“Sharma was known as a brave man here too,” Khan said about the slain inspector.

Khan has been living in the area for the last at least 20 years. His house is located just around 100 metres away from L-18, where the encounter took place.

Abdur Rehman Abid, secretary of the committee, said: “People listen to the members of the committee. We could have helped force the boys (who were killed) to surrender peacefully.”

Shadab Khan, 20, a student of MBA in Jamia Millia Islamia university, said: “We never get to know the real picture. Even the faces of the terrorists who were killed were not shown to us.”

Shadab and his friends from the university had claimed it to be a fake encounter when Newsline spoke to them on Friday. Five boys, who were neighbours of the suspected terrorists, had been picked up after the encounter and released later.

“It is the holy month of Ramzan and people get too sensitive at such a time. We are suspicious too, leave alone the youth,” said Irfanullah Khan.

The area had witnessed riots and tension in the month of Ramzan last year. A police chowki had been burnt down after a policeman allegedly insulted an aged Mufti and threw his Quran Sharif in a drain.

Subsequently, a police station was set up in the area to ensure a larger khaki presence and a better policing network.

As anticipated, the situation got tense after the encounter too, but Khan and some professors from the university helped calm the protestors outside L-18, barely a few metres from the Khaliullah Masjid.

Fayyaz Ahmed Khan, a lecturer in the engineering department of the university, was near the spot where the encounter took place. He had said on Friday: “The failure of the system is apparent, but we need to stick to the judgment of our brave policemen.”