The Terrorist who was not a Terrorist

Eyewitness account of a young boy picked up from his home in Jamia Nagar by the Special Cell

Amit Sengupta/Akash Bisht Delhi

Tuesday, September 23. Inside the dingy and congested bylanes near Jamia Nagar, these reporters were looking for clues and leads on the encounter which killed "mastermind" Atif and "terrorist" Sajid, just about 17. Opinion leaders and relatives are reluctant to disclose their identities, the terror of the police is inevitable, and yet questions are being asked about the grey zones in the encounter and after, even as scores of boys are being picked up on unknown vehicles by plain-clothes cops of the Special Cell of the Delhi police.

Even as a delegation of journalists, lawyers and academics discussed micro-details, a SMS followed by a call, brought in a pall of gloom. And fear. The faces became white, especially of youngsters, as someone shouted: "The Special Cell cops are all over the streets, in civvies." They have picked up a cousin of Atif, just out of school. They were actually looking for Talib, his brother and Irfan (name changed), Atif's close relative. Both these young men looked abjectly condemned. One is an IT executive and the other a journalist with a TV channel. "They have come to pick us up. Tomorrow they will present us before TV cameras and declare us as terrorists - bombers of the blasts," they said, even as the delegation quickly moved to the spot.

The spot through the labyrinth of lanes ended at E-75, Abul Fazal Enclave, Shaheen Bagh, the home of the youngster Mohammad Saqib. The cops had picked him up, packed him off in a car and taken him to an undisclosed location. Nobody in the family was told anything, nothing.

A huge crowd had gathered outside the house. Several youngsters - all feeling cornered that they too can be branded "terrorists" and picked up anytime - collected around the house. No one knew what to do, not even some elders, including a functionary of the Jamaat-i-Islami Hind. One senior "human rights activist" was asked by a lawyer to go and complain to the police - after all the boy is missing and no one knows the identity of the persons who picked him up! His solution was bizarre: "Here everytime a boy is picked up, we dial 100 and register a complain with the police. Rest is for the police."

Basically this translated in the fact that everyone including close relatives were too scared to go to the police station to register a complaint. So intense is the police terror in the area.

Outside the house, women too gathered, many of them crying. "His career will be spoiled," said a woman. Another said, "Why don't the police blow up the entire Jamia Nagar. Nothing will be left then. Then whom will they pick up?" Said a woman in red salwar kameez, tears flowing down her face: "If all the men here have become impotent, we women will have to come out on the streets and save our children."

At the Jamia Nagar police station, senior lawyer Colin Gonzalves along with another lawyer lodged a complaint. Along with him were senior journalists Praful Bidwai and Jawed Naqvi and several Jamia teachers. This seemed to have played a significant part in pushing the police to take a slightly conciliatory posture - before this, nobody came up to lodge a complaint when the police picked up youngsters.

Meanwhile, both close relatives were sure they will be picked up. "Let them do it," said one of them. "My mother is a blood pressure patient, what if something happens to us? Atif was my aunt's son, so we knew him; how can we avoid that fact?"