[Reader-list] Shahzad’s Arrest and Goebbels’ Lies - JTSA

Shuddhabrata Sengupta shuddha at sarai.net
Mon Feb 8 18:03:24 IST 2010


  Dear All,

Many of you may remember the disussion around the so called Batla  
House 'Encounter' last year. A few days ago, the Special Cell of the  
Delhi Police claimed to have found one Shahzad, one of the two so  
called 'fugitives' who escaped. And now they are charging him with  
the killing of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma. Incidentally, after he  
was arrested, one of the accompanying police party, Head Constable  
Rajbir Singh (apparently one of the people who was present at the  
scene of the encounter) has subsquently died in an accident, on the  
way back to Delhi. The plot, as usual, thickens.

Below is a commentary on the arrest and detention of 'Shahzad' by the  
Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association

best

Shuddha
----------------

Shahzad’s Arrest and Goebbels’ Lies
Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association

Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist, believed that a lie repeated several  
times over would soon acquire the legitimacy of truth. The Delhi  
Police has surpassed Goebbels’ strategy. By deluging the press and  
the public with one lie after another, it hopes that the truth will  
never be extricated.

Who killed Inspector Sharma?
Shahzad Ahmed (not ‘urf Pappu’ as he has never borne that name), the  
most recent prize catch of the Delhi Police is being charged with the  
murder of Inspector Sharma. Till now, we had been told that it were  
the two slain boys, Atif Ameen and Md. Sajid, whose fire had killed  
Inspector Sharma.  Indeed, the NHRC report attempts to establish this  
at great length. According to “sources” quoted in the press, Shahzad  
fired from a .32 revolver (Zee news, Feb 07, TOI 07). Now according  
to the NHRC report, the cartridge cases recovered from the site of  
the ‘encounter’ matched the .30 pistols, W2 and W3, which the police  
claimed were found in flat 108, L-18, Batla House. Two mutilated  
bullets recovered from the bullet proof jacket of a police man,  
according to the NHRC were fired from W3. It may be repeated here  
again that no seizure list was prepared in the presence of any  
independent witness, as is procedurally required, so the claim that  
W2 and W3 and the corresponding bullets and cartridge belonged to  
Atif and Sajid is just that—a claim. No unaccounted for bullets and  
cartridge cases have been mentioned by either the police or the NHRC.

So what happened to the cartridge cases of the .32 pistol used by  
Shahzad? Did the bullets and cartridge cases disappear in thin air,  
just as Shahzad and Junaid supposedly did?

The Great Escape?
According to the police version, reproduced faithfully in the press,  
Shahzad and Junaid escaped from the building L-18 while the encounter  
was on. It has been repeatedly pointed out by civil rights activists  
that the building only has one exit point through the staircase which  
is covered by a heavy iron grill. In the stories that have appeared  
in the press and also repeated by the NHRC report, this is sought to  
be explained by the presence of two separate doors to the flat 108.

However, had the NHRC or reporters bothered to inspect the site, it  
would have been clear that these two gates are adjacent to each  
other. A police party standing at the landing of the 4th floor facing  
flat 108 would face both the doors simultaneously as both doors  
actually open in the same landing. In the bizarre reconstruction of  
events according to the police, first, Shahzad and Junaid supposedly  
opened the second door to the landing, where the police party was,  
and then ran down the stairs screaming that they were residents (TOI  
report, 05 Feb). Now, according to the statement of Karnail Singh,  
Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Delhi there was a “back- 
up team, headed by ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav …which immediately rushed  
to the flat in order to rescue the team members and apprehend the  
militants holed inside the flat.”(NHRC report).

Now suppose, there were two militants who had fired upon the police  
and were running down the stairs, surely, they must still have  
wielded the pistols (.32??), and regardless of their protestations  
that they were residents, ACP Yadav’s team, which by the police’s own  
admission rushed upstairs immediately, should have apprehended them,  
or at least attempted to overpower them. And surely, the crowd of  
people, which the police claimed had collected around the building,  
hearing the firing, would have sighted two young men, pistols in hand  
running down the stairs. But all we have is police claims and  
custodial confessions of Shahzad (which remember are not admissible  
in court) that he and Junaid fired and fled the spot miraculously.

  But wait, it gets more twisted.  According to a news report,  
Shahzad and Junaid, after making good their escape, walked to the bus  
stop and took a bus to Badarpur. In the evening, Shahzad and Junaid  
boarded a train to Mumbai without realizing where it was  
headed…” (Indian Express, Feb 04). Imagine, a fleeing terrorist  
waiting at the bus stop for the right route number bus to arrive! In  
other stories, the duo traveled to Aligarh (some say by train, others  
insist they took a bus) but there is no consensus on their travel  
itinerary. According to TOI on Feb 05) from Aligarh, the two went to  
Lucknow and thence to Azamgarh, where Junaid parted ways with  
Shahzad. In another report in the same paper, this was the route:  
Aligarh, Bulandshehar, Lucknow, Khalispur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Mumbai  
(where the two separated). (TOI, Feb 07)

So did they take a train out to Mumbai or a bus (or again train) to  
Aligarh? At the very least, the Delhi Police must try and be  
consistent in its leaks to the press.

The Pilot Theory Crash lands
  As early as January 6, there started to appear reports in the  
television media (Headlines Today/ Aajtak) that a 9/11 type of attack  
had been planned by the IM to be conducted by Shahzad Ahmad who had  
ostensibly received a flying license at an institute in Bangalore.  
This was attributed to information contained in a confidential  
communiqué of the Intelligence agencies.

Following Shahzad’s arrest, there was frenzied reporting about his  
commercial pilot license. But now it turns out that he had never  
enrolled in a flying institute. One may not choose to believe  
Shahzad’s mother when she denies he never received any flying  
training, but the Uttar Pradesh Addl DG (law and order), Brij Lal  
also refuted the allegation that Shahzad was a pilot (Mail Today, Feb  
06). All reports of the aerial module of IM and Shahzad’s key  
position in this supposed module are based of course on unnamed  
sources in the police.
Why were the Intelligence agencies so keen to propagate the falsehood  
of his flying skills?


Manisha Sethi, Adil Mehdi, Ahmed Sohaib, Ghazi Shahnawaz, Tanweer  
Fazal, Arshad Alam, Sanghamitra Misra, Amabarien Al qadar, Haris ul  
Haq, Azra Razak, Farah Farooqi, Anwar Alam


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