The so-called “SHAHEED” Ishrat Jahan case which gave many political parties a strong hold point to stir up the vote bank and to call the, then Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi a killer has now come to a new different plane. In a disclosure that could stir up a new wave of controversies the Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley, on Thursday told the Mumbai court that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operation to shoot a police nakabandi at some place. During his deposition, he referred to a woman killed in a police encounter on Indian soil. When he was given three names, he claimed that the name of the woman was Ishrat Jahan.
It is to be noted that on June 15, 2004, Ishrat Jahan Raza, Javed Gulam Sheikh(alias Pranesh Pillai), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter by the Ahmedabad Police. It was claimed that the four were gunned down by the police team belonging to the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of the Ahmedabad City Police. The police claimed that the four were active LeT members and had come to Gujarat to assassinate the then chief minister Narendra Modi in order to avenge the communal riots of 2002 which had led to the deaths of numerous Muslims.
Speculations rose after a report was submitted by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang in the Ahmedabad metropolitan court on September 7, 2009, which said that the four persons were killed in police custody. The Ahmedabad metropolitan court ruled that Ishrat’s killing was a fake encounter. The report also claimed that police had first kidnapped Ishrat and others from Mumbai and also there was no evidence to indicate their link with LeT. The Gujarat government had challenged the report in high court calling the report as “Illegal and doubtful”. Stating this case as the one of national importance a special investigation team was set up to probe the case further. SIT sent four teams to Srinagar, Delhi, Lucknow and Nashik to probe Ishrat’s alleged terrorist links. But in November 2011, the SIT told the Gujarat HC that the Ishrat Jahan encounter was not genuine. In the context of this report the HC ordered that a complaint under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder) has to be filed against those involved in the fake encounter, in which over 20 policemen, including senior IPS officers, were involved.
This revelation by Headley become very important and clinical in assessing those politicians who called her “The daughter of Bihar”. Readoo.in wants to quote and remind its readers that over 10,000 people had attended her funeral and also the LeT in its internet version of paper had claimed that Ishrat was indeed a LeT operative and had offered obituary. We should recollect that the Modi-led then Gujarat government was subjected serious allegations and was even called ” Anti-Muslim” by some political parties and activists.
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