Jamia Teachers and Students Protest against the Special Cell

A protest call had been given by Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group to demonstrate at the Special Cell office of the Delhi Police at 11.00 am today. This call was in response to the recent revelation by the CBI that the Special Cell had falsely implicated two youths, Irshad Ali and Md. Moarif Qamar as Al Badr 'terrorists' in 2006. The Special Cell claimed that the two young men had been arrested while alighting from a Jammu & Kashmir Roadways bus in February 2006 and were carrying two pistols and two kg of RDX. In its report to the Sessions Court, however, the CBI disclosed that Ali and Qamar were innocent and in fact IB informers, who were abducted by the Special Cell in December 2005!

These startling revelations have brought into open the way in which such 'special' security agencies operate: kidnapping, framing innocents, planting pistols and explosives, and justifying their high-handedness in the name of fighting 'terror'. The 'Al Badar operation' of the Special Cell is very similar to the Batla House 'Encounter':

- The Special cell team which conducted the 'Al Badr' operation was headed by ACP Sanjeev Yadav and Inspector Sharma—the very same people who led the Batla House operation!

- Moreover, there were several common members between the two Special Cell teams: Sub-Inspectors Ravinder Tyagi, Sanjay Dutt and Rahul Kumar played an important role in both events.

- Arms have been shown to be seized on both occasions. No seizure lists made or verified in either cases.

This naturally deepens our suspicions about the claims that the Delhi Police has been making about the Batla House 'encounter'. Today's protest was against the shameful tainted past of the Special Cell. However, when the protestors were leaving from Jamia, the Delhi Police stopped the bus and detained the teachers and students, denying them the right to express their outrage at the Special Cell office. The demonstration was then shifted to Jantar Mantar. Teachers and students from Delhi University, JNU Students' Union and senior journalists joined the protestors. Among those who expressed their solidarity with the protest were Prof. Vijay Singh (D.U.), Prof. Nirmalanghsu Mukherjee (D.U.), Amit Sengupta (Senior journalist), Harsh Dobhal (Journalist) and JNUSU Vice President Shephalika Shekhar.

Speakers raised questions about the veracity of the Special Cell's claims regarding the Batla House 'encounter'. They also expressed their outrage at the fact that while those who indulge in fabricating evidence to implicate innocents are glorified and rewarded, those who raise questions and wish to exercise their democratic right to protest are harassed by the police.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• India
• Protest
• Delhi
• Police
• Jamia
• Teachers