Ulema Council questions NHRC report on Batla House

Refusing to accept the clean chit given by National Human Rights Commission to the Delhi Police in the Batla house encounter, Ulema Council has said it would stage a demonstration in Delhi on Tuesday. "Members of Ulema Council and other organisation will stage a demonstration at Jantar Mantar tomorrow to protest against NHRC's clean chit to Delhi Police," convenor of the council Amir Rashadi said in Azamgarh on Monday. Rashadi alleged that the NHRC gave clean chit to the Delhi Police under pressure from the Congress government. "An inquiry headed by a sitting judge should be ordered to probe the incident," he said, adding that people from Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Delhi will participate in the demonstration.

Atif and Sajid, two youths hailing from Azamgarh were killed in an encounter with Delhi police at Batla house in September last year. The police claimed that the youths were involved in serial bombing at different places in the national capital. However, Ulema Council, which claimed that the innocent youths were gunned down by the police, had launched an agitation and had alreday staged demonstrations in Delhi and Lucknow on the issue. The National Human Rights Commission in its report, submitted to Delhi High Court on July 22, gave clean chit to Delhi Police in the Batla House encounter case in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists and a police officer were killed last year, saying there was no human rights violation by the police.