The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association adopted several resolutions at an all-India convention on “State, Democracy and ‘Terrorism’, a year after Batla House Encounter on the campus earlier last week. “The house has resolved to strengthen the movement for the demand for an independent and fair probe into the Batla House encounter. It demands Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately institute a judicial enquiry into the encounter,” said Manisha Sethi on behalf of the solidarity association in a statement. At the convention, a demand was also raised to ensure speedy justice for the accused and the arrested youth in the case. The participants also pressed for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Manipur and Kashmir, which has “bred an atmosphere of impunity”. They demanded that the National Human Rights Commission guidelines pertaining to encounter killings be scrupulously adhered to and “all those police and security personnel who indulge in extra judicial killings be booked under culpable homicide”.
“This house resolves to build a wide political movement for the defence of human rights and for the revamping of the State and national human rights commissions,” said the statement endorsed by Mukul Sinha of Jan Sangharsh Morcha, Dinesh Varshney of the Communist Party of India, and M. K. Muneer of the Indian Union of Muslim League.