Ishrat Jahan’s sister Musarrat said that her family doesn’t trust the statements made by Headley.
Ishrat Jahan’s sister Musarrat Jahan is unhappy with the statements made by Pakistani American terrorist David Headley’s saying that Ishrat Jahan was a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative. Musarrat said that her sister was innocent. Ishrat Jahan was killed in an encounter that took place in 2004 by the Gujarat police. The incident had occurred when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah was the state Home Minister. The case led to the arrest of several high profile officers and the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat was under attack by the opposition.
Musarrat said that her family doesn’t trust the statements made by Headley. She said, “My sister is innocent and we can’t trust the statements made by him. I sure truth will be unveiled soon. Headley may have some vested interest how can we trust him? The investigations have already proved that the encounter was fake.”
Ishrat Jahan’s family lawyer Vrinda Grover said, “It was a cold blooded murder. There’s political motive behind Headley’s questioning. Ishrat doesn’t possess any terror links.”
Ishrat Jahan’s family has been alleging that it was a botched up operation by the Gujarat Police in which Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed. The police alleged that Ishrat and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Later, an investigation was launched into the allegations that Ishrat was killed in a fake encounter. After a long investigation, in 2009, an Ahmedabad Metropolitan court ruled that the encounter was staged. Human Right’s group across the country claimed Ishrat was an innocent girl and was killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat police.
Meanwhile the Congress questioned the attempts to use Headley’s court testimony to justify the “fake” Ishrat Jahan encounter which it said were “not permissible by law”.
“The fundamental question remains whether Ishrat Jahan and her three accomplices were killed in a fake encounter in 2004. A probe into the encounter case found it to be fake,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said
Mumbai Regional Congress Committee President, Sanjay Nirupam said, “We never said that Ishrat Jahan is innocent but we were questioning the encounter which occurred in Gujarat. Our party has been saying that she was a terrorist. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to shield himself instead of taking the 26/11 probe forward.”
NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad said that Headley’s statement can’t be taken at face value. He said, “I will have to study this case carefully. I am unaware of the statements made by David Headley and first I will have to examine that. We will have to first verify the authenticity of the statements made by Headley.”
The Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case was hugely politicised by opposition parties. Many political leaders had come forward to support her family. Awhad had offered financial assistance to Ishrat’s family.
