Ex-Delhi CP warns against politicizing Batla House encounter; 'tried in Court of Law'

Upset over the Batla House issue being raked up every time ahead of the elections, former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on Republic's The Debate with Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami said that politicians should leave the police out of the discourse. In a shocking statement made earlier in the day, Congress ally Tauqeer Raza Khan claimed that the terrorists who were killed in the Batla House encounter were 'martyrs'. 

"The matter was got into great detail by the Human Rights Commission. The report was accepted by the Delhi High Court, also subsequently by the Supreme Court. Most importantly, the whole case was tried before the Court of Law and the arrested accused was sentenced to death," said the former Commissioner, underlining that there has to be a closure somewhere.

Congress ally Tauqeer Raza Khan defends statement on Batla House

Defending his shocking remark on Batla House, Tauqeer Raza Khan on Wednesday claimed that all 'encounters and bomb blasts' that took place in that period were 'fake'. In an exclusive conversation with Republic Media Network, Tauqeer Raza Khan said that incidents were executed to malign the image of the Muslim community, and portray them as 'terrorists'  in front of the Hindus. He added that if a probe was conducted in all the cases, it would be found that those referred to as 'terrorists' were actually 'martyrs'. 

"That time, all the encounters and bomb blasts that took place were fake, they were executed to malign the image of Muslims and to create a sort of fear against the community in the hearts of the Hindus like they are terrorists, they are ani-nationals," Khan said in an exclusive to Republic.  

The Islamic cleric added," I am not just talking about Batla House, if there is an independent inquiry in all the cases, it would be proved that they were not terrorists, they were martyrs."

What is the Batla House encounter?

 On 13 September 2008, five serial bomb blasts had rocked the national capital killing 30 and injuring 90, with similar blasts occurring in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore. Indian Mujahideen had reportedly taken responsibility for the blast, ten minutes after the first bomb blast in Delhi's Ghaffar Market, as per reports. A week later, Delhi police conducted an armed raid at Batla House on 19 September 2008 - which led to a 20-minute encounter killing two Batla House occupants -  Mohammad Sajid and Atif Amin, while Shahzad and Junaid (a.k.a Ariz Khan) escaped and Mohammad Saif was arrested. Moreover, Encounter specialist Mohan Chand Sharma was martyred and head constables Balwinder and Rajbir Singh were injured. Recently, Ariz Khan was sentenced to death for killing Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and injuring two head constables.