New Delhi: With the political heat rising in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has once again taken up the Batla House encounter issue.

Addressing a gathering, yesterday, in Azamgarh – the small town in eastern Uttar Pradesh from where those killed in the encounter belonged – senior party leader and Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid spoke at length about what all happened after the Sep 19, 2008 encounter.

“We talked to Sonia Gandhiji, we showed her pictures of the tragedy… she wept bitterly. She told us with folded hands not to show her the pictures and asked us to take the matter to the Prime Minister,” Khurshid said.

“Then we talked to the Prime Minister; the matter progressed and we were close to finalising the name of the judge who would probe the matter…,” he added.

Khurshid’s statement has elicited strong response from the opposition parties. While the Bhartiya Janata Party said that the Congress is defending terrorists, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party said that the people of the state will see through the Congress’ game plan.

Azam Khan of Samajwadi Party accused the Congress of trying to ‘gain votes over dead bodies’.

Interestingly, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who has time and again raised the Batla House encounter issue, this time, chose to evade questions asked over Khurshid’s statements.

He said: “Salman Khurshid has only detailed an incident.”

Digvijay had earlier raised serious questions over the credibility of the encounter that had led to the death of Delhi Police officer Mohan Chand Sharma besides the two alleged terrorists.

However, Home Minister P Chidambaram had recently clarified that, as per the government, encounter was genuine. “While there is a difference of opinion the matter stands where it stands today,” he had said.

Batla House encounter took place in Batla House locality of Jamia Nagar, Delhi on 19 September, 2008. The police was acting on a tip off against suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists. Two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid were killed while two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one accused Ariz Khan managed to escape.