Congress has different views on Batla House encounter, but against politicizing it

New Delhi, Jan 13 (ANI): Amid the ongoing war of words surrounding the 2008 Batla House encounter, Congress Party on Friday termed it to be a sensitive issue, and said that there is no need to politicize it.

"See, it is a sensitive issue and there is no need to politicize it. Since it is election time now, so this issue has been raised again," said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier on Thursday rejected the claims made by Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh that the Batla House encounter was fake.

"After looking into the matter, after I took over as Home Minister, we came to the conclusion that the encounter was a genuine encounter. Every authority who has looked into it (the case) has agreed that it was a genuine encounter. So, while there is a difference of opinion, I think the matter rests where it stands today. I don't think there is any scope for reopening that matter," he told the media here, when asked to comment on Digvijay Singh's statements.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier on Thursday accused Digvijay Singh of being sympathetic towards 'extremist militants'.

"He is not sympathetic to the martyred police officer, but sympathises with extremist militants. This is also an insult to the Muslim community. We feel that extremism has no religion, but they connect Muslims with extremism. This is Digvijay's politics," said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

Digvijaya Singh, who had been expressing doubts on the issue repeated on Wednesday said that the encounter was fake, and added it could not be probed, as the Prime Minister and Home Minister believed the encounter was true.

"The Prime Minister and Home Minister were of the view that the encounter was true. That"s why I did not press it further," he said.

Batla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on September 19, 2008, against suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid, two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one accused Ariz Khan managed to escape.

Encounter specialist and Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action was killed during the incident. (ANI)