New Delhi: In an apparent turn-around,
National Investigation Agency (NIA)`s chargesheet is silent on
American terrorist David Headley mentioning the name of Mumbai
college student Ishrat Jehan, who was killed by Gujarat police
in a controversial encounter, as a Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist.
Senior Home Ministry officials had claimed that Headley
has told NIA sleuths that Ishrat Jahan, a Mumbai girl killed
in an encounter in Ahmedabad, was a suicide bomber of the
outfit.
The officials had said Headley shared this information
with the four-member team of National Investigation Agency and
Law Department during their visit to Chicago in the US in June
this year.
However, the 106-page chargesheet, on which NIA secured
an Interpol worldwide arrest warrant against five Pakistani
nationals, including two serving Army majors, does not
speak about Ishrat Jahan.
The girl, whose death had sparked a major controversy,
was alleged to be a member of Lashker`s suicide squad who had
been inducted by top LeT operative Muzamil.
The controversy broke out after Jahan`s family claimed
that she was just a student and filed an appeal in the court
stating so. Gujarat Police had claimed that the terrorists
were in the state to target Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The NIA chargesheet had not even touched the June 15,
2004, encounter in which Jahan was killed along with Javed
Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals Amjad
Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani.
As per police records, they were intercepted on the
outskirts of Ahmedabad while travelling in a car. When they
were confronted, an encounter erupted in which all were shot
dead.
Ishrat`s mother Shamima Kausar, in her petition before
the Gujarat High Court, had claimed that her daughter was
working as a saleswoman for Sheikh`s perfumes business.
PTI
