Encounter faked, but was Ishrat a terrorist and why she was killed?

Anil Narendra

The entire country is watching the Ishrat Jahan encounter attentively. The CBI has submitted more than 1500-pages charge sheet, before Ahmedabad Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate HS Khutwad on Wednesday after nine years of the encounter. It includes the statements of 179 witnesses also. The Charge Sheet says that Ishrat and her three companions – Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali and Jasheen Jauhar were murdered in a pre-planned conspiracy. The CBI has charged seven officers of Gujarat Police including the DIG DG Vanzara, who was suspended for this fake encounter staged in the early morning hours of 15^th June 2004, of kidnapping and murder. According to the charge sheet, this encounter was the outcome of collusion between the Gujarat Police and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB). This CBI charge sheet is being considered as an instrument to unsettle the Narendra Modi Government of Gujarat. There are three or four aspects to this case. Unfortunately, people have tried to put two important agencies of the country in  confrontation mode to settle political score. In fact, this matter is directly related to the security of the country. If inputs of the IB are put under scanner, then how do we receive intelligence? We will have to put faith in our Intelligence agencies; otherwise it would be very difficult for us to function. It would result in lowering the morale of every police personnel, which would directly affect on the law and order situation in the country. The Union Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs or whosoever has tried to politicize this matter, has done a great harm to the country. The second aspect is whether this was a fake encounter or not? According to the indications received so far, investigation reports, the statements of the witnesses etc., it appears that the encounter was fake and senior officers of the Gujarat Police were involved in it. The CBI has exposed the conspiracy in its charge sheet. The issue of propriety of encountering a hardcore terrorist, has always been a matter of dispute. The third very important aspect is whether Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist or not? Were her companions also terrorists or not? The name of the controversial IB officer Rajendra Kumar has not been mentioned in the charge sheet filed in the Special Ahemdabad Court. According to the charge sheet, the role of Rajendra Kumar in the conspiracy of this fake encounter is under investigation. There is also no comment in the charge sheet whether Ishrat Jahan and her companions were terrorists or not. This first charge sheet also does not mention about the motive of these murders. Also, name of any political leader has not been mentioned in it. The important thing is that the CBI has seriously questioned the role of IB along with these Gujarat Police officers. This incomplete charge sheet has neither revealed whether all the four killed in the encounter had any link with terrorists or not, nor it has dwelt upon the motive of this fake encounter. Every murder has a motive, but in this case, no mention of motive has been made in the charge sheet. The CBI has also said nothing about Ishrat Jahan, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai, and her companions being terrorists or not. A CBI official has clarified that the Court had directed it only to investigate whether the encounter was fake or not. As such, it had not been empowered to go beyond the limited mandate. In fact, the Government has set such an example in this matter of Ishrat Jahan, which can cause a dent in the national security. First, it manipulated to raise a dispute in the Ishrat case over the issue of encounter with the terrorists, then it tried to put a question mark over Ishrat’s background. Then, with political gain in mind, the investigation by the CBI was given a direction that the background of Ishrat became meaningless. Now officers of both the intelligence input provider agency and the agency who take action on these have been made to cross swords. Like other affected families, Ishrat’s family too had approached the Human Rights Commission. Later, a Magistrate termed this encounter, disputed. The case reached High Court, where a demand was made to conduct CBI enquiry of the encounter incident. In its reply in the Gujarat High Court, the Government stated that Ishrat was a terrorist, so were her companions. The Intelligence Bureau of the Gujarat Police had informed that they were planning the killing of Narendra Modi and LK Advani on the instructions of Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Union Ministry of Home affairs filed an affidavit in the High Court, supporting the stand taken by the Gujarat Government. Both the Gujarat Government and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs wanted to close this case, but within two months, the then Home Minister, P Chidambaram gave political colour to the Ishrat case and filed another affidavit in the Court stating that there were no proofs of Ishrat Jahan and her companions being terrorists. When the CBI proceeded with its investigation, the Government felt that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah could also be dragged in this case. In view of this, the CBI was made to change its course of investigation and it bent upon proving that Ishrat Jahan and others were perfume traders, who were killed by the Gujarat Police. It is interesting to note that CBI is asking the Ministry of Home Affairs for the documents that mention about Ishrat Jahan and her companions. According to the document, the four persons gunned down by the Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police on 15^th June 2004 in an encounter were Jasheen Jauhar alias Abdul Nasheed, Amjad Ali alias Salim, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai and Ishrat Jahan daughter of Shamima Kausar. Jasheen Jauhar and Amjad Ali, two of the killed persons, were Pakistani nationals. It is said that Jasheen entered Jammu and Kashmir from the PoK and got his fake identity document made from Udhampur. Amjad Ali was made responsible for terror activities in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Ghulam Sheikh, who went to Dubai in1994, was lured to conversion and was taken under the protection of the Lashkar. There is documentary evidence to the effect that Lashkar got Javed and Ishrat married and sent them to various places in the country as husband and wife. During their visits, they used to pose as perfume traders. There are evidences of their traveling together to Lucknow, Faizabad and Ahmedabad. On the basis of these documents, the Ministry of Home Affairs had stated before the Gujarat High Court in 2009 that both Ishrat and Javed were terrorists. In any case, the Lashkar newspaper, ‘Ghazwa Times’, published from Lahore acknowledged that Ishrat, killed by the Indian Police, was a Lashkar activist. After interrogating David Headley, the US Government had sent a formal letter to the Government of India clearly mentioning that Ishrat was a suicide bomber, who was recruited by Muzzalim, a Lashkar brigade. FBI, the US investigating agency had also clarified that this brigade had planned to attack Somnath Temple, Akshardham and Vinayak Temples. All these are documentary evidences, but in spite of this, the Union Home Ministry submitted wrong statement before the Gujarat High Court with a view to transfer this case to the CBI and to change the entire direction of the investigation. But now, when the investigating team of the CBI is asking for the same documents, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs is loosing its senses.