Anhad to file PIL on Gujarat encounter killings

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Seeking to ''blow the lid off the encounter drama'' in Gujarat, a rights organisation Anhad today said it will soon file a PIL asking for a probe into the encounters carried out by arrested DIG of Police D G Vanzara and his team and the concerted efforts made by top officials to cover them up.

''The encounters are a pattern of sinister killings. Apart from being fake, there has been every attempt to cover them up even at the level of the Chief Minister's office,'' said Prashant Bhushan, of Anhad.

Renowned lyricist-poet Javed Akhtar, who also will be an applicant in the PIL, said it was wrong to term the killings as fake encounters. ''They are cold-blooded murders. Extra-judicial killings have taken place, in which not only senior police officers but also the CM's right-hand men are involved,'' he said.

Even the victims involved were petty criminals, the state police had no business to kill them, Mr Akhtar said, adding, ''We live in a civilised society and should not do anything beyond the parameters of law. If the judicial system is sluggish, then we should take measures to reform it and not go about branding people as terrorists and killin them.'' Also speaking on the occasion, Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad, said there have been a systematic pattern in the seven encounter killings that has taken place involving Vanzara's team. ''Every time the persons here branded as Jaish or Lashkar militants and done to death. And on each occasion, police maintained that their target was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders,'' she added.

By this, the Chief Minister wanted to evoke sympathy and endear himself to the people and on the other hand continue with his offensive against the Muslim community,'' she said.

Citing the Sameer Khan case, Mr Prashant said the investigation points clearly to the fact that a cover-up was crafted in the Chief Minister's office.

''Senior IGP Tirth Raj, who conducted an inquiry, had submitted a report pointing to the involvement of P K Mishra, principal Secretary to Mr Modi. DSP I K Yadav who was also inquiring into the murder, was also threatened by Vanzara. All these facts have been brought out by the Tehelka expose,'' he said.

UNI