The Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims, a conglomerate of Islamic organisations, rejected the National Human Rights Commission’s report on the Batla House encounter on Monday and called it “one-sided”.
The panel is calling for judicial and CBI inquiries into the issue and has announced a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.
“We have lost our faith in the NHRC, which did not even bother to visit flat no. 108 at L-18, where the encounter took place. They did not interview the residents of the seven other flats in the building and the relatives of the victims,” S Q R Ilyas of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board said.
The NHRC report, submitted before the Delhi High Court on July 22, has given a clean chit to the Delhi Police, saying there was no human rights violation by them.
Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid, two youths hailing from Azamgarh and suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists, were killed in an encounter by the Delhi Police in Batla House in September last year. Also killed in the incident was police inspector M C Sharma.
“We have come together as an independent apolitical group after the realisation that every political party has used the Muslims merely as a votebank. However, we realise that we cannot go forward without coordinating with these same political parties,” Mujtaba Farooq, convenor of the CCIM, said while outlining the dilemma his group faces.
“The AIIMS postmortem report of M C Sharma says his surgery at Holy Family Hospital destroyed vital evidence. It is surprising then that the police claimed the inspector was hit from the front,” Tasleem Rahmani, president of the Muslim Political Council, said. “The NHRC has also not looked into the revelation that Inspector Sharma, who was taken to Holy Family within five minutes of being shot, died of excessive bleeding even though his vitals were not injured,” Rahmani added.
... contd.