Mumbai, September 09: Ishrat Jahan’s family in Mumbai hailed metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang’s report on her “staged encounter killing” along with three others in June 2004.
Friends of Jahan’s family even alleged that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi could also have been involved in the fake encounter.
Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar and her children-Mushrat (22), Anwar (21) and Nusrat (17)-addressed a press conference in Thane a day after the report became public.
Mumbra resident and social activist Rauf Lala, who has been helping out the family since Ishrat’s death, was also in attendance. “Though a Gujarat magistrate has said the encounter was carried out by the policemen to seek promotions and appease Modi, his involvement in the crime cannot be ruled out,” he said.
Lala did most of the talking while Ishrat’s family members confined themselves to a statement.
Reading out the statement, Mushrat said her sister was innocent and not a terrorist, as was claimed by the Gujarat Police all along.
“My sister was a patriot and so are other members of our family. We now want the people who killed Ishrat to be given the strictest punishment for their crime,” she said.
Ishrat’s sister said that thought the verdict would not bring her back, it still went a long way in vindicating the family’s stand that the encounter was fake.
Mother Shamima said the family faced major upheavals after the death of its then sole breadwinner.
“She was the only earning member of the family. She was also a bright science student. Her death and the subsequent accusations led to my other children’s lives getting ruined. Their education had to be discontinued,” she said.
Shamima added that the family managed to earn its daily bread by doing zari work and that her son had only recently managed to get a job.
Lala said the case should not be given a communal colour. “Our lawyers were all Hindu. This is a victory of secularism.”
–Agencies