On the 7th anniversary of the Batla house encounter, students from different campuses of Delhi participated in the protest march organized by Campus Front, alleging it as fake encounter and demanded for an independent and impartial probe. A. The march was led by the National General Secretary PV Shuhaib. The protesters raised slogans against the witch-hunt of Muslim youth and the state terrorism.
Addressing the students National General Secretary, PV Shuhaib said, “The demand for judicial inquiry into the matter was rejected by the Union and state governments saying that such an inquiry will demoralise Delhi Police. It means that the government already believed that the boys were terrorists and conviction of Shahzad is a foregone conclusion”. While expressing shock and dismay, and terming the Batla House fake encounter tragedy as a conspiracy hiding the truth. He urged the governments for an impartial probe which could bring about the trueness of not only the encounter but expose even those responsible for the brutal killing of the youth mercilessly in the name of national security. He questioned the legal and constitutional sanction of the ‘encounter’ specialists. Shuhaib reiterated that Campus Front would continue agitation against all kinds of the atrocities in democratic manner.
While addressing the protesters Advocate Yusuff (NCHRO National Secretary) said that “the killing of youths at the L18 Batla house on 19 September 2008 was not an encounter but a cold blooded killing. Thus we demand the NDA government to order for an independent enquiry in the killing”. It’s been 7 years of injustice, 7 years of a tragedy and 7 long years of wait for justice. We shall not budge and day after day, year after year the demonstrations will continue till the victims are given justice. People believe that the killing of youth at Batla house and conviction of Shazad recently is a case of utter injustice. The court’s verdict did not question the genuineness of the encounter, we respect the judiciary but it was not the end of the road. Our stress for the judicial probe will continue. There were several bomb blasts in the last decade in India. After each terror incident Muslim youth were arrested and made scape-goats. But later due to investigation of officers like Hemant Karkare, the hand of hindutva was exposed behind the blasts. ”