NEW DELHI: On the sixth anniversary of the 2008 Batla House encounter on Friday, terror group Ansar-ul-Tawhid Fi Bilad Al Hind (AuT) — which recently uploaded a video of ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi with Hindi, Urdu and Tamil subtitles — hailed Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives who died in the encounter as its "martyrs".This is the first time any terror group — that too one based in the Af-Pak region — has owned up the victims of the encounter. IM, which sent mails owning up blasts before and after most incidents it was involved in, never sent any mail after this incident. It also did not take responsibility for the killing of decorated police officer Mohan Chand Sharma who died in the encounter.There has been a dubious air around the encounter with civil rights activists calling it "fake" and the victims to be "innocent".In a series of messages titled "Batla House — inshallah we will revenge" (sic) that began flowing on AuT's Twitter handle @isabahmedia2 since late on Thursday night, the outfit claimed that IM operatives Atif Ameen and Mohammed Sajid were martyrs and that AuT mujahideen would avenge their death and imprisonment of other IM members.The messages, in English, Hindi and Arabic, also carried pictures of Ameen and Sajid with captions calling them "shaheed". The write-up accompanying the pictures read, "We the mujahideens renew our pledge to avenge the martyrdom of Batla House encounter and other oppressed Muslims including our imprisoned brothers unless and until we establish Sharia law in India under the global Khilafah (Caliphate) wiping out all the man-made boundaries."Police, however, are still verifying the origin of the messages. "We are yet to trace the origin and veracity of the handle as proxy servers are in place but the message analysis has been given high priority. These messages are very similar to how IM first made its presence felt through a media blitzkrieg," a security establishment officer said.The fact that AuT has owned up the victims of Batla encounter is significant as the outfit itself is an offshoot of Indian Mujahideen. Launched a few years ago by the coming together of jihadi elements in Af-Pak region and IM operatives who had rebelled against the leadership of Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal in Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan, AuT has been lately suspected to be flirting with ISIS.L-18, Batla House where the encounter had happened (TOI photo)The development has also catapulted the hotly debated encounter into the maze of global terror as not only is AuT based abroad but also has global ambitions, say security establishment sources.AuT had recently uploaded three different videos with subtitles in Hindi, Tamil and Urdu with messages from various ISIS operatives including the Friday sermon of Baghdadi in which he called for jihad against India among other countries. It had also uploaded videos condoling the death of an Indian jihadist who died fighting in Afghanistan even as it carried a video message by a former Indian Mujahideen operative calling Indians for global jihad.Notably, LeT had similarly owned up Ishrat Jehan, who was killed in a "fake" encounter in Gujarat along with three others, in its online publication Ghazwa Times. The post was, however, removed the day father of one of the victims, Javed Shaikh, moved a petition in the high court for the encounter to be investigated by CBI.Several officers from Gujarat have been incarcerated in connection with the encounter even as officers from Intelligence Bureau are facing CBI probe.Six years ago, on September 19, Atif Ameen and Chhota Sajid alias Mohammed Sajid were gunned down in an encounter with Delhi Police in a small apartment in Batla House area of South Delhi.Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma fell to bullets from the terrorists and was posthumously honoured with Ashoka Chakra. Two years later on the same day (September 19, 2010), the Indian Mujahedeen had also carried out the shootout at Jama Masjid on Taiwanese tourists allegedly to avenge the encounter.