The great joke that is Indian Media – Part VII
From Some Hard Questions (Hat Tip: Sh Kak), comes this extraordinary account of how even the basic facts about the Jamia Nagar operation are proving to be difficult to reconcile if one goes by the accounts in different newspapers…
On Friday last week, the Delhi Union of Journalists released a critique of media reporting of the Batla House Police Operation, from which these excerpts (pl. do read in full):
Extracts from the DUJ report
…We wish to underline that accuracy in reporting facts is the first responsibility of the media. Where facts are disputed, the discrepancies should be pointed out and the sources questioned. Presenting several versions of incidents and using multiple sources of information is an inalienable part of credible reporting.
We also emphasise that uncovering the truth may not always be the job of the media. The media is not equipped to investigate and uncover the truth in severely complicated cases like the incident being examined in the report.
But presenting different facets of events as they emerge is part of the professional responsibility of the media.
In this report we have analysed the reporting of the Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express (Delhi editions of September 20 and 21, 2008). Among the Hindi newspapers we have examined Dainik Jagaran, Amar Ujala, Dainik Hindustan, Jansatta, Punjab Kesari and Rashtriya Sahara; the Urdu newspaper we looked at is Rashtriya Sahara.
We wish to make it clear that we hold no brief for either the police or the suspects, two of whom have been killed and several rounded up. We are not passing a judgment on whether it was a planned encounter or a fake encounter or a police operation gone wrong. We do not know the truth. We are only examining the professional conduct of our co-professionals with a view to pointing out the casual manner in which serious issues have been handled right from the day of the serial bomb blasts in Delhi.
A research team of the DUJ decided to examine the way in which the print media reported the police operation on September 19, 2008, at L-18, Batla House, Jamia Nagar in Delhi in which two alleged terrorists and one inspector of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police were killed. We have attempted in this report to first state the facts as they were reported and then analyse the language employed and the views expressed while reporting and commenting on this highly sensitive and contentious incident.
Analysis of Newspaper Reports dated September 20, 2008
The facts first.
1. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police killed.
2. Two young boys, Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid, killed.
3. Mohammed Saif arrested.
The rest of the facts regarding the police operation at L-18, Batla House, Jamia Nagar, Delhi on Sept. 19, 2008 are uncertain. Although the incident took place in the capital of India and all the newspapers and TV channels used the same source, the Police, even the basic facts are not in place. Every daily newspaper and television channel seems to have its own set of ‘facts’ and often these contradict each other. Accuracy seems to have been sacrificed in the rush to be first with the news and provide the more sensational coverage. Let us examine how the incident was reported in the Delhi editions of the dailies.
The Time of the Shootout:
The Hindustan Times and Dainik Jagran have given the time as 11 a.m. The Indian Express, quoting a resident, says the first shot was fired around 9.45 a.m. The Times of India report does not mention any time. Mail Today says it began at 11a.m. The Hindi Hindustan report would have us believe that it all began at 10.30 a.m. Amar Ujala says firing began around 10.45 a.m. and lasted till 11 a.m.
The Duration of the Shootout:
The Hindustan Times says the shootout lasted 15 minutes whereas its Hindi publication, Dainik Hindustan, says it lasted 90 minutes. According to the TOI, the entire encounter took 25 minutes. Mail Today says the operation lasted 30 minutes. The Veer Arjun says the shootout lasted between 30 and 45 minutes. Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu, claims that the shooting lasted nearly two hours. Amar Ujala says the encounter lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. Punjab Kesari claims that the encounter lasted one hour.
Rounds fired:
According to the TOI, 25 rounds were fired by the police and 8 by the ‘terrorists’. The Indian Express, the Hindu, Dainik Hindustan, Punjab Kesari and Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu say the police fired 22 rounds. They are all silent about the rounds fired by the suspects. Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi and Amar Ujala say the police fired 22 rounds and the ‘terrorists’ fired 8 rounds.
Interestingly, the Navbharat Times claims that both the police and the suspects were armed with AK 47s but did not use them!
‘Explosive’ stuff:
All the dailies reported the police claim that those shot at Batla House were terrorists responsible for several bomb blasts.
The HT quoted Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal as saying that “explosives made by him (Atif – our clarification) and his team bore their signature – two detonators, wooden frame, ammonium nitrate and analog quartz clocks.”
In the light of this claim, the list of explosives claimed to have been recovered from the flat occupied by the suspects is interesting.
Dainik Hindustan says one AK 47, two pistols, one computer and important papers were recovered.
Veer Arjun reports one AK 47, .30 bore pistols, cartridges and 21 country pistols were found.
Navbharat Times says one AK 47, two .30 imported pistols, 20 live cartridges, magazine, two laptops, mobile phones and other items were recovered.
Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi says police recovered one AK 47 and two .32 bore pistols, one computer and books.
Punjab Kesari says police found one AK 47, two pistols and one computer.
Amar Ujala says the police seized one AK 47, .30 bore revolver, two laptops, half a dozen mobiles and six pen drives.
None of the dailies report the recovery of any ammonium nitrate and analog quartz clocks. No question is asked about the recovery of these chemicals or equipment claimed to be part of the terrorist group’s signature.
How many Policemen were there?
Indian Express reports that Sharma went there along with five officers.
Mail Today reports a 15-member team led by Sharma
Veer Arjun claims 50 personnel led by Sharma landed there.
NBT says a total number of 24 police personnel went there.
Amar Ujala reports that a 22-member police team cordoned off the area under the leadership of Sharma.
The TOI, HT, Jansatta, Dainik Jagran and The Hindu refrain from mentioning the number of policemen involved in the operation.
How many Bullets hit Sharma?
The TOI, IE, HT, Mail Today, The Hindu, Veer Arjun, Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi all say three bullets hit Sharma.
Navbharat Times says four bullets hit him.
Jansatta claims that five bullets hit him in the abdomen, thigh, left arm, upper part of the shoulder and right hip (Anchor story).
Rashtriya Sahara, Urdu reports four bullets hitting him, one each on shoulder, arm, back and right hip.
Rashtriya Sahara, Hindi claims that all the three bullets were taken out during an operation in Holy Family hospital
Amar Ujala also claims that bullets had been removed and quotes Dr. Rajesh Chawla to this effect. It says Dr Chawla was summoned from Apollo hospital. He reportedly told the paper that there was excessive bleeding because the bullets hit the lung and the lower part and after ‘bullets had been removed’, it was felt that Sharma may survive.
Subsequently post-mortem reports quoted by some of the dailies said that Sharma had been hit by only two bullets and both bullets had exited the body. No bullets were removed from his body.
About Mohan Chand Sharma
Even in paying tributes to Inspector Sharma the papers have reported different facts. HT says that he had “shot dead 75 criminals and terrorists.” The TOI says he was “credited with the killing of 35 terrorists and the arrest of 80 others.” The IE says that “Sharma’s ‘kill tally’ stood at 75 criminals including 35 terrorists”. The Hindu says he was instrumental in “neutralising 35 terrorists and arresting as many as 80 militants.” It goes on to say he had ‘gunned down 40 gangsters’ and arrested ‘120’ criminals. Amar Ujala reports that Sharma killed 35 terrorists and 40 gangsters, nabbed 80 terrorists and 129 gangsters. It says he was involved in 75 encounters.
*** End ***
P.S. I have not been able to verify the details mentioned here and don’t know much about “The Hoot” but I have no apparent reason to doubt its integrity.
Related Posts:
Jamia Nagar: A dangerous cocktail…
A tribute to Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma
“The great joke that is Indian Media†series:
Related Posts:
“The great joke that is Indian Media†series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.
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This is really sad and insane..I have no comments..
Are we all expected to rush to the spot personally and undersatnd things for ouselves ,everytime something happens..so that we know ‘real’ news..Newspapers are busy making small rifts between communities deepen more and more..almost none of them have tried wholeheartedly to heal wounds..
There are shitty muslims,shitty hindus and shitty christians..What we need is eliminating these criminals,not any society as a whole..Just bcoz there are some crazy Dal guys,that doesn’t mean whole hindus are communal..Just bcoz there happens to be physcho killers named jihadists,we need not eradictae the whole of muslims for a better day..Just bcoz some ‘New church’ guys are out there to kill people.the whole acts by missionaries cannot be condenmed..
But what we see in media is the opposite..Sad..really sad..What do we do about this..Hardly a few people bother to read different newspaper and try to have a critical view..For the rest,mugging up a single newspaper,right or wrong,is the option…and they form their own conclusions based on it..The media knows this and hence they spread( and have won) in breaching our interfaith trust… 🙁
What I learned is every news is to be read with a pinch of salt. Never to form assumption for anyone by reading news paper. Form our own conclusion. By now we all know who are good and bad in the society.
If you see the TOI carefully there were two reports on the same page and these two reports showed different names and age for Inspector Sharma.
Do you not think that these days we get ‘views’ and not ‘news’.
From a report in Indian Express (dt Oct 10 ’08): ENCOUNTER: QUESTIONS AND COUNTER-QUESTIONS by Sobhana K & Neeraj Chauhan
How did the police pinpoint the exact location in the crowded neighbourhood of Jamia Nagar?
The Delhi Police claim that it was based on the analyses of phone calls. First, there were calls from Jamia Nagar PCOs to Ahmedabad numbers. Then, the Gujarat Police passed on a number to the intelligence agencies and the Delhi Police. The number under surveillance belonged to Atif Ameen. With advanced technology, it is not difficult to identify the exact location of a caller under surveillance. Though Delhi Police say their raid had nothing to do with it, Mufti Abu Bashar was taken on September 18 to the areas where he lived during his Delhi stay. Jamia Nagar was among them. To reconfirm the presence of the cell phone under surveillance at L-18, a Special Cell Sub-Inspector, Dharminder Kumar, had made a recce, posing as a Vodafone salesperson.
Why did a veteran of encounters like M C Sharma not wear a bullet-proof vest?
One, the police did not expect an encounter at L-18. What they were sure of was that there were people somehow linked to the blasts, or who were in touch with those who were responsible. The presence of armed terrorists, in fact, took them by surprise.
Two, wearing bullet-proof jackets and entering a crowded locality would alert the suspects and would give them time to escape.
If the police had known about the presence of armed terrorists inside, they would have gone with a much bigger team for the operation. “He (Sharma) was not a novice… He would not go wearing a bullet-proof jacket there as he knew that those hiding might get alerted,†Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Karnal Singh said.
Was Sharma shot in a friendly fire?
Since they were not anticipating an encounter, the question of a policeman firing first does not arise . As the sequence of events, and the photographs taken by a freelancer later suggest, his colleagues immediately rushed Sharma downstairs.
The initial x-ray at the hospital showed that bullets had exited his body. As per a press statement issued by the hospital at 5 pm, he was in critical condition and had been shot on his left shoulder, left arm, left abdomen and right hip. He was operated upon as his intestine had ruptured and soon shifted to a ventilator. Sharma was declared dead at 7.
Was Balwant Rana actually injured?
The bullet injury in his right arm had broken his bones into small pieces, leaving an inch-long gap between the bones. “We had to remove the fragments as the bones were broken in really small pieces and had no chance of healing. To fill the gap, we grafted a bone from his pelvis,†said Dr Vijay Sharma, assistant professor, Department of Orthopaedics, AIIMS Trauma Centre.
How did two of the terrorists manage to escape?
Addressing a press conference hours after the encounter, JCP Karnal Singh said that the two terrorists escaped in the melee after Inspector Sharma was shot. The team that went in for the operation had only eight men. Two of them were shot at: Sharma and Head Constable Balwant Rana. Two colleagues rushed Sharma to the car. There was chaos all around and the two people guarding the entrance too escorted him till the car parked at the end of the street.
Only two policemen were upstairs at the two-room flat in which the suspected terrorists were hiding. That was when the two managed to escape through the only staircase to the flat.
Why did the alleged terrorists buy SIM cards in their names?
Police officials have explained that all the young members of Indian Mujahideen were overconfident that they would not be caught. Reasons: they believed that police could not trace them because they did not have any criminal record. This was revealed in their interrogation. They did not even leave the area after the encounter.
So far, what is the corroborative evidence?
From the flat, the police recovered a bucket in which the bombs were kept, the adhesive tape used to seal the explosives and the bag used to transport the bombs from Udupi to Delhi. They also recovered laptops which had five clips of the blast sites in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi. The police also found fake voter IDs in the names of Rahul Sharma and Pankaj Kumar and train tickets to Udupi.
The Delhi Police have also found records of Mohammad Saif’s stay in Hotel Broadway in Udupi under the name of Rahul Sharma. There are records for the calls he made from a PCO near the hotel. The police had also recovered one AK-47 and two pistols from the flat.
Police officers have one last question for all those doubting the encounter: Would any police team leave a live witness (Mohammed Saif who was arrested) for a fake encounter?
shantanu, this version posted by u is only one sided story.the other side version going around hot in delhi political circles goes like this……..there were only 2 students in the room when the encounter took place. both were unarmed. sharma was a controversial encounter specialist who had beed suspended just 5 days ago when a ‘encounter’ by him was proved suspicious.they say he was blackmailed by a home department top official ‘to do something’ when the home department had got a bad name. on the following day he was put in charge of delhi blast investigations . it is believed that he shot the two in the room and to make it look authentic encounter he shot balwant rana in the arm standing just behind him. a shocked balwant rana reacted by firing back at him 2 or 3 times which resulted in his death.the other 3 so called students or terrorists were arrested from outside and brought to the site. one was aressted from a news channel studio.the police is hiding the collateral damage done in the encounter by making up stories.
i m not saying this version is entirely true but i feel eminent and respected NGO’s are asking for a judicial probe into the encounter shows that they lack faith in the police version.
abu bashar was arrested from his hometown yet the police records show the arrest was made from lucknow. why ??most of these guys were active on social networking sites like orkut and never hid their identification.
the police version can be very misleading.if u remember a very dangerous terrorist named shiekh mohammed omar,who was exchanged during kandahar hijack, and was later convictd in the daniel pearl murder. he was in tihar jail for eight long months when the BJP was in power and can u believe it that not a single chargesheet was filed against him because he had a british passport.
in the purulia armsdrop case ,peter bleach a british and six other latvians national were charged with â€war against the indian nationâ€. they were released and acquitted from the case on the intervention of tony blair and gordon brown.
If NHRC is one of the eminent and respected NGO referred above… then its suspicious as the material on that NGO’s site show complete bias…
Dear Tarique,
You have disaapointed me. Believing NGO’s and the NHRC. What a scream!!?
These jokers we all know come out of their tunnels only when they get something they know will get them news. Where were they when the blasts took place in Mumbai, is it because Hindus were killed and it does not make news? Where were they when Hindu Fishermen were killed in Maradu? Is it because only Hindus were killed and killing of Hindus in India or anywhere does not make news headlines for them thru NDTV, CNN/IBN?
Where were they when AKshardham temple was attacked? Is it because that it was only a Hindu Temple and it will not make continous news for a month or so?
I can go on, on and on asking these questions. here is no end to it.
When we feel it convenient we believe the politicians and the police. When it is inconvenient we tend to ignore it. That is one of the reasons that some politicians are still in power.
Please Tarique I expected better of you.
No offence to you.
regards,
vck
shantanu i noticed u have edited the other side version of mine on ‘jamia encounter’. i don’t think so it was offensive to anyone . if young university students of our country can be labelled ‘terrorists’ without a conviction why can’t a suspicious finger be raised on cops in this country whose honesty to his profession is always viewed with suspicion all over the country.if u care for the late m. c . sharma then also think of young arushi who the police claimed ‘was in an uncompromising position when her dad dr.talwar caught her redhanded. it proved false later. if the police can speak bad of the dead why can’t we common citizens do on same lines ???
*** NOTE by MODERATOR ***
Tarique: Your earlier comment is at #5
krishnan there is no need to feel bad on my comments as i m as confused as the entire nation about what is going on ??look at today’s reports about hindu outfits planting bombs in malegaon and modasa in gujrat. this report is claimed by mumbai anti terrorist squad. then what happened to the earlier story of indian mujahideen ?? krishnan , we are all caught in a media circus and a political melee.in the mumbai blasts there was a fair trial and chargesheet filed against all accused and i have always maintained that mumbai blasts were the handiwork of muslim underworld elements. but in many other blasts in this country there is not even a proper chargesheet in place.it is either blamed on pakistan or ISI or lashker and now ‘indian mujahideen’.in akshardham we were only told that one terrorist travelled all the way from pakistan, killed the pilgrims and was shot dead. krishnan , just take a close look at the various contradictions of various police versions and u will get my point clearly.look at gujarat version, look at mumbai version and then look at delhi version. in each case they are claiming they have cauht ‘the real mastermind’. now the hindu outfits angle a new twist to the tale. then what about muslim youths tortured and beaten up in malegaon jails ? tell me ??
what about muslim youths charged under POTA in modasa blasts in gujrat if the latest anti terrorist squad findings are true ??krishnan this is not about hindu or muslim, this is about our children who are growing up in this country , who need to be well informed about the dangerous future ahead in these turbulent times. ‘arushi’ and jamia encounter’ need strong permanent answers or a day will come when our children will view their own classmates with a deep suspicion . krishnan do u want that ??
Dear Tarique,
Where does this madness end?
regards,
vck
krishnan, i really don’t know. i try to find shantanu’s or ur shoulder to cry on.maybe this madness will end after may 2009 general elections ??maybe when there are no state election nearby, no municipal elections ??no college elections.
From: http://twitter.com/ndtv
Police: Indian Mujahideen militant confesses role in 2008 serial blasts
Excerpts from The Batla House encounter: Some disturbing aspects by J P Sharma (emphasis mine):
The arrest of Indian Mujahideen fugitive terrorist Shahzad alias Guddu from Khalispur area of Azamgarh district by the ATS team of UP Police has once again turned media spotlight on the Batla House encounter.
…Even though press reports of the disclosures made by Shahzad during his interrogation confirm the story given out by Delhi Police about the terrorists involved in the encounter, the critics refuse to budge from their stand that the Batla House encounter was fake and an enquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court is necessary to establish the truth.
Batla House and Jamia Nagar
According to a gentleman familiar with the area, the densely populated Muslim dominated Jamia Nagar is a no go area for police and BSES meter readers. Over the years, poor Muslims from UP, Bihar and Bangladesh have been encouraged to settle in the area. One prominent resident is Asif Mohammad Khan, an ex MLC who had spent time in Tihar Jail under a POTA case.
At election time, voter identity cards can be obtained by anybody for just Rs 100, no questions asked. A few years ago, someone engineered a fight with a police constable by deliberately knocking a small copy of the Koran off a thela. The local sub-inspector Sharma and some other policemen who went to help the constable were roughed up by a crowd and Sharma beaten so severely that he barely escaped with his life. Okhla Chowki was burnt down. Shaheen Bagh Chowki became a Thana with all-Muslim staff. Since then, the police keep a safe distance from the whole area.
…While reporters were covering the live action on the weekend following the encounter, Asif M. Khan was hovering in the area and people had started concocting stories that the police had come around 3 a.m. with 3-4 of those killed, planted them in the flat, and then came back in the morning for the fake encounter. Huge crowds gathered behind the police lines and about midday you could already hear loud anti-police noises. Had the police not been present in strength they would have been massacred. According to a reliable eye witness, while the encounter was in progress, police vehicles were pelted with stones. The crowd also shouted slogans like “Pakistan Zindabad; Hindustan Murdabad.â€
The Ulema Council
The Ulema Council formed in the wake of the Batla House encounter is a body of Islamic clerics of Azamgarh. Some clerics are those whose sons were arrested during the police investigations in to the terrorist attacks. After mobilizing the local population, the Ulema Council announced plans of holding protest demonstrations at Delhi and Lucknow. They hired a train to bring protesters to Delhi. The first act of the Ulemas after boarding the train was to beat the RPF staff on duty and compel them to remove themselves from the train.
On reaching Delhi they held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar. Not many details of their actions are known, but BBC reported that the national flags carried by the demonstrators were held upside down i.e. the green strip at the top and saffron at the bottom.
The protest campaign
Immediately after the news of the encounter broke out, a storm of protest was launched by the inhabitants of Jamia Nagar, which others joined with remarkable zeal and energy. The protests took the form of demonstrations, peace marches, petitions to the Government, High Court/Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission etc. The Jamia Millia Islamia Vice Chancellor announced that the University would provide legal aid to the detained students.
The Jamia Teachers Solidarity Group, Delhi Union of Journalists, All India Students Association and some famous and not-so-famous NGOs like People’s Union for Democratic Rights, ANHAD, Sadbhav Mission, Nishant Natya Manch and several human rights and civil liberties activists like Shabnam Hashmi, Javed Anand, Colin Gonsalves, Harsh Mander, Moushimi Basu, individually and collectively lent support to the protest.
The protests received wide coverage in the national media. One version prominently publicized, particularly in the Muslim press, alleged that to restore the reputation of the Indian security forces which had been badly mauled by successive terrorist attacks across the country, the Delhi police staged a mock encounter and killed two innocent Muslim boys by falsely branding them as terrorists. To give a semblance of reality to the so called encounter, the police caused some injuries to their own personnel, but clumsily ended up killing Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
A constant refrain of the protestors was that the boys killed by the police were innocent. Even after the National Human Rights Commission, which had been asked by the Delhi High Court to enquire into the matter gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police, the protests did not cease; instead NHRC was accused of covering up for the Delhi Police!
Demoralization of Security forces
While politicians like Ram Vilas Paswan, Amar Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav were known to be staunch supporters of Muslim organizations like SIMI, it was sad to see ministers of the Union Government and the Congress general secretary express abiding concern for the welfare of families of terrorists and undermining the morale of security forces by questioning the genuineness of an encounter in which a gallant police officer lost his life.
…An extreme instance was the interception of a Rajasthan police team which had arrested a Jaipur blast suspect from Varanasi and was bringing him to Jaipur; the team was intercepted by the UP police at Kanpur railway station and forced to allow the suspect to return to Varanasi (probably fearing an agitation by locals there). The treatment of Taslima Nasreen by Hyderabad police or the arrest of the editor and publisher of the Statesman by the Kolkata police are instances of police helplessness against the clout of radical Muslims.