AA Khan: The Real Hero of Shootout at Lokhandwala

Eleven years after his retirement, the police officer who led the shootout at Lokhandwala is now back in the limelight with a new film being based on that encounter.In 1991, Altaf Ahmed Khan led a team of over 500 men to carry out what became to be known as the Shootout at Lokhandwala.''When you talk of the Lokhandwala shootout, or my career, you are talking of old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago,'' said Altaf Ahmed Khan, Former IG of Police.Until then, an ambitious and independent officer, Khan was known for his fight against terrorists. He had also formed Mumbai's elite police cadre, the Anti-Terror Squad in 1990.Then one afternoon in 1991, Khan got a tip-off that Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa, extortionists from the Dawood Ibrahim gang, and five others were holed up in a building in Lokhandwala, waiting to extort money from builders.Khan arrived there with a massive team of policemen.''I announced on the loud hailer that come, you are surrounded, you can't escape. Dolas was standing on the terrace. He took my name and he started giving choicest abuses,'' said Altaf Ahmed Khan, Former IG of Police.What followed next was lost in a hail of blood and bullets, and after four hours, all seven gangsters were shot dead.Different versionsAccording to one version, it was sheer daredevilry by Khan and his men - an account that will now be dramatized in a new film where Sanjay Dutt will play Khan.But according to another version, Khan faced allegations that he had killed the gangsters at the behest of Dawood Ibrahim, who had fallen out with Maya Dolas.''If you really decide to believe that Dawood told the ATS to kill these fellows, then anything is possible, any theory will fit in. Dolas was the cheapest form of human who had no respect for human life,'' said Altaf Ahmed Khan, Former IG of Police.It's a story that sums up the double-edged world of encounter cops - glamourised on screen and vilified in real life.Although allegations of a fake encounter were dismissed by the Bombay High Court, a bigger allegation and a bigger controversy was on the horizon.In the riots of 1993, Khan was accused of communal bias and of deliberately targeting Hindus.While the charge was never proved, it did end his career, as he retired prematurely in 1996.So was Khan a victim or a hero? That is the question that now remains to be answered.''If I was a victim and not a hero, I don't think 11 years after my retirement you would have come to interview me. I am recognised. The kind of recognition I get from the people and the media matters more than what the government thinks of me,'' said Altaf Ahmed Khan, Former IG of Police.(Source:- NDTV)



read more | digg story