A Memoir on How the Batla House Encounter Made Everyone a Suspect

On 19 September 2008, on a tip-off, Special Cell of Delhi Police raided L/18 flat in a Muslim-majority neighbourhood of Batla House. The area was cordoned off to nab the suspects of the Delhi Blasts. In the gunfire exchange, two occupants of the flats were killed, one occupant surrendered, and a police inspector was martyred.

Neyaz Farooquee was at the time, studying in Jamia University and lived in a flat close to where the encounter took place. Years later, he has penned a memoir on his experiences as a boy from Bihar who came to Delhi’s Jamia Nagar for better prospects.

(Courtesy: The Quint)