Three years later,Batla House a picture of gloom,still haunted by terror tag

The recent blast outside Delhi High Court had similar consequences. “Auto-rickshaws stopped plying here on September 7,the day of the blast. I had to come home from JNU at 10 pm and an autowallah agreed to take me only after a lot of pleading. I had to pay him in advance,” says a second-year Mass Media student of Jamia Millia Islamia,who stays in Zakir Nagar.

A few residents claim that a few days after the blast,some people were picked up from the locality for questioning. “People are too scared to talk,but at least four to five persons were detained for questioning after the blast. We are trying to put the facts together to lodge a formal police complaint,” says Faiz Ahmad Faiz,president of Okhla-based NGO Vishwa Shanti Parishad. Senior police officers have denied the allegation.

For those from Azamgarh,the fears were compounded. “My landlord had asked me to leave Batla House after the encounter. Obviously,I expected the same fate this time and packed my bags. I have been lucky so far,but who knows when police will find an Azamgarh angle?,” says a PhD student from Jamia.

Rejaz Saqib,who was a final-year student in 2008,recalls how he and his friends had spent 10 days at a professor’s residence out of fear. “I was too terrified to sleep at home for a month after that,” Saqib says.

The fourth floor of the L-18 building,the site of the encounter,wears a desolate look. House no 108 is locked. Residents are suspicious of the media as well as “well wishers”,preferring to avoid all questions regarding the encounter.

Rehan Khan,who stays in flat 105 on a floor below,is reluctant to even open his door. Peering from behind a mesh door,Khan says,“It happened here. Residents of floors below have left. We don’t know if their houses are just locked up or sold. Relatives are weary of coming to our home because of the address. What else can we say?”

Gauhar Khan,who runs a hotel at the end of that street,says business has never been the same since the shootout. “Earlier,this was mainly a student housing lcoality. Now,getting rented accommodation for single men is next to impossible here. My sales are half of what they used to be,” he says.

Now,to rent a house in the locality,one has to go through a long-drawn and stringent police verification process. “For people from Azamgarh,finding an accommodation here in Batla House is next to impossible. Even if you have completed police verification,you compulsorily need a ‘relative’ in Delhi,” says a history student from Jamia,who is from Sanjarpur in Azamgarh.

Hamid Ali,a resident of L-16,says,“In 2008,getting phone SIM cards had become a problem. Food chains stopped delivering here. After the High Court blast,these problems have resurfaced.”