Police Version

But there remains why Mr. Rehman the caretaker of the flat, vouched, on camera, that he accompanied Atif to the Police Station for the verification. His statement to the camera is before Karnail Singh, the Special Cell chief dismissed the documents as forged.

2. How two alleged terrorists escaped: Flat L-18 has two doors, perpendicular to each other in an L-shaped corridor. Police maintains that the two escaped from the other door on the right that took them to a staircase which leads to an open terrace and from there was an easy escape for them by jumping on to other terraces since they knew the area well and there was no aerial survey and none was positioned on the terraces to watch out.

3. Why was the late Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, a veteran of dozens of encounter operations, the only officer in the operation not wearing a bullet proof vest? Police maintains that he fell victim to his own brave strategy. He had already briefed his team that he would lead them without wearing a bullet proof vest as he did not want theresidents and the terrorists in Jamia Nagar to get suspicious of his presence. Joint CP (Special Cell) Karnail Singh has specifically addressed this point: "Wearing a uniform and bullet proof jacket often warns terrorists who get away. Sharma had his own gameplan and went with it."

The police insist that the tip-off they had was about terrorists hiding in one of the three-four specific houses in that particular lane of Batla House colony -- each plot has eight flats. Before L-18 was approached, one police constable dressed as a salesperson hadalready knocked on three flats. Their intent was clearly to ensure that terrorists were taken unawares.

4. The police does not talk about any firing in the air or wanton destruction

5. The police does not get into details. But all indications are that the alleged terrorists fired with what weapons they had handy.