Batla House encounter: BJP stages protest outside Cong HQ

New Delhi, May 30

BJP leaders and workers on Monday staged a protest near Congress headquarters here, demanding an apology from Sonia Gandhi and her party leaders on their statements over the Batla House encounter issue.

“The BJP wants that after the latest revelation that terrorists involved in the Batla House shootout have IS links, the Congress president and her associates should apologise to the nation,” said Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay who led the demonstration.

The protesters, including party MPs Ramesh Bidhuri, Udit Raj, Meenakshi Lekhi and Vijay Goel, were stopped by the police near 24 Akbar Road, headquarters of the Congress.

Several protesters were detained when they tried to dismantle the barricades. They were later taken to the Parliament Steet police station.

Last week, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh had stoked a controversy after he dubbed the 2008 Batla House encounter as “fake”.

He asked the Central government to order a judicial probe into the encounter in which two suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed.

“Batla House encounter was fake. I dare the BJP to go for a judicial probe. I still stand by my remarks on the encounter. I don’t know who is Bada Sajid or Chhota Sajid,” Singh had said.

The BJP has latched onto an IS video where one of the men claimed that he was at Batla House when police had raided the premises and fled afterwards. However, it was not clear whether he was inside the same house where the two alleged Indian Mujahideen militants were killed in the encounter.

The NIA had said it was in the process of identifying all the six people who were part of the 22-minute video.  — PTI