Page 4 Mail Today, Sunday, September 21, 2008 Mail Today, Sunday, September 21, 2008 Page 5

UP cops say
ARYA PRAHARAJ

Friday fight
slain youths
were ‘clean’
Policemen in plain clothes observe Batla House in A sub-inspector, dressed as a sales executive, knocks After the SI found the fourth floor flat suspicious, he informed his colleagues. Inspector Sharma then led a
Jamia Nagar. The cops were told the militants at one door in L-18. When a woman opened the door, team to the flat. He asked the man who opened the door his name. Suddenly, some others started firing from
involved in Delhi blasts were hiding in some flats. he was sure the ‘militants’ were hiding elsewhere. inside the house. Sharma and head constable Balwant Singh were injured while two ‘terrorists’ escaped.
PHOTOS: NAEEM ANSARI

By Piyush Srivastava
in Azamgarh Sanjarpur village in Azamgarh
refuses to believe that its sons
O
N A HOT afterno-
on barely two mo-
nths ago, 17-year-
old Sajid made a
promise to his mo-
ther — he would
are terrorists. They were just
one day prove that he was as
intelligent as his cousin Atif
Ameen, 24. He would join an
simple guys who dreamed big
engineering course and speaking institute.
become a noted technocrat.
He wanted to know how his TERROR Saif, 23, had also left home for the
first time in July. A graduate from
Azamgarh, he is the fourth among
mother would react when he
returned in a chauffeur-
driven car, dressed in a black
TARGET 14 siblings. “I didn’t want any of my
children to go away. But Saif did

designer suit, ready to take
her on a world tour.
A second-year intermediate stu-
dent, Sajid left home — for the first
time in 17 years — on July 10 to join
coaching classes in Delhi. Since
Atif had rented a house in the city,
there was nothing to worry about.
“He was scared of a big city like
Delhi and wanted me to call him
up every day. He didn’t want to go
to Delhi, but he didn’t want to
compromise on his career either,”
said Dr Ansar-ul Hassan, father of
Sajid, who was killed along with
Atif on Friday at Jamia Nagar.
Sajid was fourth among six broth-
ers and sisters.
Dr Hassan, a Unani doctor who
runs a clinic in Azamgarh, has not
touched food after he was
informed about his son’s death.
“Can someone become a terrorist
in two months? Can someone who
used to hide in his mother’s lap all
Delhi
the time become anti-national
within a few days?” he wanted to
know. “He went to Delhi because
Atif, his role model, was there.”
“Atif was a role model for all the
youngsters in Sanjarpur village,”
said Mohammad Ujair, a local
trader and neighbour of Dr Has-
san. “Sajid had met me on his way
to the railway station on July 10.
Mohammad Saif was with him and
they were very excited about mak-
ing it big in life,” Ujair recalled. Saif
told Ujair that his first mission was
to speak fluent English. “He told
me there could be no career with-
out fluency in English,” Ujair said.
In fact, five boys from the village
were staying in the Jamia Nagar
house. Sajid and Saif were plan-
ning to shift to the Safdarjung area
where they had found a good com-
puter course and an English-
not want to be a small cloth merch-
ant like me. He was very ambitio-
us,” said Shadab Ahmed, the fath-
er of Saif, who was arrested on
Friday. According to the Sarai
1
Meer police, under whose jurisdic-
tion Sanjarpur village falls, there is
no criminal record against any of
five youngsters who were staying
in the flat.
While the Delhi Police may be
patting its own back, Sanjarpur vil-
lage is seething. “Let the police
identify them and show us how
good their intelligence network is.
We read in the newspaper that two
youths had escaped from the flat
and one of them was Tauqeer, the
computer expert who was involved
4
in the recent blasts at Ahmedbad (1) Mohammed Ameen, the father of
and Delhi. But there were only Atif Ameen who was killed by Delhi
three men staying in that flat. Two
others had left over two months Police in an encounter at Jamia Nagar
on Friday morning; (2) Mohammed
ago,” some villagers said.
According to them, two more Tahir, the maternal uncle of Abu
boys from the village were staying Bashar, an accused in the Ahmedabad
in the flat, but they left for Luc-
know a couple of months ago after serial blasts case. Bashar’s wife is a
finding Delhi too expensive. distant relative of Atif and Sajid; (3)
Shadab Ahmed, Saif’s father. Saif was

T
HEY HELD a meeting on
Saturday and took a
unanimous decision. “We
don’t want our children
to study. It’s better they are illiter-
ate and poor. They went to Delhi
with dreams in their eyes, but the
police killed and arrested them
only to prove that Abu Bashar is a
terrorist,” said Abdul Jawad, a
maulvi in the local madrasa.
Even the local police is surprised
about how Delhi Police zeroed in
on Atif and others. “There is no
criminal record against Abu
Bashar or the other three,” said cir-
cle officer Shaelendra Kumar.
Surprisingly, neither the local
police nor the families of the ‘ter-
rorists’ have been contacted so far.
“We have received all information
from TV channels,” said Moham-
mad Amin, Atif’s father.
Atif was the youngest among two
brothers. He had done MA in his-
tory from Machlishahr in Jaunpur
district.
The villagers are angry about Atif
being called the mastermind of the
Delhi attacks. “Since the police
have failed to prove their charges
against Abu Bashar, the accused in
the Ahmedabad blasts, they are
trying to finish all those whom
Bashar knew,” said Mohammad
Tahir, Bashar’s maternal uncle who
stays in village Binapara, located
six kilometres away from San-
jarpur.
“Bashar’s wife Shakira is from
Sanjarpur. She is a distant relative
of Atif and Sajid. We fear that the
entire family would be eliminated
soon,” he said.
‘FATHER FIGURE SHARMAJI
LED US TILL THE VERY END’
By Amandeep Shukla
in New Delhi
HEAD constable Balwant Singh
is slowly recovering from bul-
let injuries at the AIIMS Trauma
Centre. But there is a wound —
inflicted by the Jamia Nagar
encounter — which will proba-
bly never heal in this lifetime:
the death of inspector Mohan
Chand Sharma. He was a ‘father
figure’ for the team members.
Since Friday, when he was
hospitalised with a bullet injury
on his right hand, 32-year-old
Singh hasn’t stopped replaying
that deadly combat in his mind.
“We reached the spot around
11 am, 15 to 20 minutes before
inspector Sharma came. I was
posted at the intersection a
few metres from flat L-18. We
had been informed that some
men involved in the blasts were
staying there and in another
flat nearby. My responsibility
2 3
was to keep an eye on the fou-
rth floor,” Singh told MAIL TODAY.
“After Sharmaji came, it was
decided that one of us would
go up and gauge the situation.
Sub-inspector Dharminder,
dressed like a salesman on pur-
pose, went and knocked on the
door. The boys rebuked him
and sent him away. When Dhar-
minder came back and told us
that the inmates were suspi-
cious, Sharmaji decided to take
the lead. Five of us walked up
while others covered all possi-
ble exit routes,” Singh recalled.
“I stopped for a little while to
question a man. But seeing my
team on the move, I joined
them. Our plan was to pick up
the boys for questioning.
Sharmaji, as always, was lead-
ing us. Somebody opened the
door and Sharmaji asked him,
‘tera naam kya hai’. But that
question was answered by bul-
lets,” he said.
Relative recalls final conversation with Atif
By Faizan Haider
in New Delhi
LITTLE did Shahbaz know, when
he put the phone down after speak-
ing to Atif Ameen on Thursday
evening, that it was the last time
they had talked. The next he would
hear of his relative would be on tel-
evision the next day — as the “ter-
rorist mastermind” behind Delhi
and several other serial blasts,
gunned down inside his home in a
police encounter.
“I am not prepared to believe at
any cost that my relative was a
mass murderer,” said a shocked
Shahbaz (whose name has been
changed as he feared the police
may arrest him too), while speak-
ing to MAIL TODAY on Saturday.
“Atif was a regular guy, interested
in his studies and pursuing his
career. He could never plant bombs
and kill people.”
According to Shahbaz, Atif came
to Delhi four years ago to join a
computer hardware course with a
private institute in South Exten-
sion. “After finishing that, he told
me he had enrolled to study human
arrested for his alleged involvement in
the serial blasts; (4) Mohammed Ujair,
a neighbour of 17-year-old Sajid who
was killed along with Atif in the Jamia
Nagar encounter on Friday.
resource management in Jamia
Millia Islamia. I thought it was an
that the killed persons were carry-
ing fake identity cards.”
unusual field, but one with a lot of Atif, Shahbaz said, had also
promise. He used to discuss his appeared in engineering entrance
plans of joining a big company examinations, but had failed to
some day. Now they tell me he was clear them.
a terrorist, and people are rejoicing Shahbaz never visited Atif’s Batla
that he’s been killed.” House, Jamia Nagar flat, nor did he
The university’s human resource meet his roommates. He said there
management department, how- was no particular reason why Atif
ever, says no student by the name wasn’t putting up with him at his
of Atif Ameen was enrolled there. Jassola residence.
Police sources said Atif was actu- “Atif told me he would prefer stay-
ing with his friends, and I had no
problem with that. I also knew
Jamia Millia University Batla House was close to his uni-
disowns Atif as its student versity, making it quite easy for him
to commute. However, he used to
come to my house.”
The relative heard of the encoun-
ally studying human rights at the ter when a friend called up and as-
varsity’s political science depart- ked him to turn on the TV. “I watc-
ment. But Rumki Basu, who heads hed the news channels. But only in
the department, also denies Atif’s
the evening did I realise it was my
enrolment. own Atif who had been killed,”
“I checked the records after the he said.
name of the university came up in With misty eyes, Shahbaz recalled
connection with the shootout. No their last conversation. “We had a
student by the name of Atif Ameen normal talk. He didn’t sound the
was studying human rights here,” least bit worried. I could not make
Basu said. “It’s possible though out if anything was amiss.”