New Delhi: Seventeen years after the Batla House encounter, Jamia Millia Islamia students marking the anniversary of the incident faced police action during a peaceful protest inside the campus. The march, called “Insaf Mashaal Juloos,” was organised by the All India Students’ Association (AISA) to demand justice and remembrance for those killed in the 2008 operation.
Students reported that security forces, with the support of university guards, blocked the march at Gate No. 7 and allowed police to enter the campus. Several AISA leaders and activists were detained. Witnesses said female protesters were dragged, manhandled, and detained roughly. Some alleged that hijab-clad students were pulled away by women guards, while others claimed the police used the open gate to snatch demonstrators even from within the campus.
For participants, the crackdown represented an attempt to silence questions over the Batla House encounter, which remains deeply contested. On 19 September 2008, Delhi Police Special Cell stormed a Batla House flat, killing 24-year-old Jamia student Atif Amin and 17-year-old school aspirant Mohammad Sajid, branding them Indian Mujahideen operatives. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was also killed.
Civil rights groups including PUDR, PUCL, and JTSA have since pointed to inconsistencies in post-mortem reports, bullet wounds, and the implausibility of suspects escaping from a one-exit flat. Despite demands, no judicial enquiry has been ordered, and the National Human Rights Commission accepted the police version without independent investigation.
Students at Jamia argue that remembering the encounter is essential, as its aftermath left many Muslim youths across Delhi stigmatised and under suspicion.
