Further exposure of State Terror

The conviction of Delhi Police encounter specialist ACP S.S. Rathi and nine members of his team has brought back to public glare the cold blooded murder of two innocent individuals. Rathi and two constables pumped 34 bullets into two businessmen in their car in broad day light at a traffic intersection near Statesman building in Connaught Place, in the very heart of New Delhi, on March 31, 1997.

The policemen claimed that one of the car’s occupants resembled the alleged Uttar Pradesh gangster Mohammed Yaseen and that when they tried to flag the car down, they were fired at. The police team planted a pistol and cartridges in the car after the shooting and claimed the occupants were gangsters and had fired first. It may be recalled that Mohammed Yaseen himself was later killed off in an “encounter”.

“Encounter killings”, where the police or armed forces or special security forces kill in cold blood with impunity, are not an uncommon phenomenon. Just some months ago, a case of fake encounter involving the DIG police of Gujarat and two other IPS police officers was exposed; at the same time, it came to light that the same DIG police had been involved in 9 other “encounters” in which 15 people had been killed. Prior to this, another "exposure" revealed that armed forces personnel had been regularly picking up and killing ordinary residents by the score in Ganderbal, Kashmir, and then passing these people off as “terrorists”, in order to gain awards and promotions. Again, in the shooting of another innocent at the Ansal Plaza about five years ago, the "encounter specialists" claimed that the victim had fired at them.

All this goes to show that the most blatant acts of murder of innocent people by the state — the police, the army and Special Forces — are a regular practice in the world's "largest democracy”. In fact, these “encounter specialists” are rewarded with prize money and medals for their "bravery".

For every one case which comes to light and results in arrest of the perpetrators, it must be remembered that there are thousands more which do not. State terrorism is used very systematically to create terror among the public as well as to eliminate people who oppose those in power or protest against injustices committed by the state. It is used to divert people from other critical concerns. It is invariably accompanied by a barrage of propaganda about how the state is under threat from “terrorists” and “extremists” and that strong-arm methods are therefore justified.

State terrorism is not confined to Kashmir and the North East, where people have been facing it on a daily basis for decades on end. These methods continue to be used all over India, both in the countryside as well as in the country’s capital itself. People must unite and strongly protest against these murders committed by the state.