[Reader-list] Ishrat was to kill Modi: Headley

[Pawan Durani]

Bearing out the version of Gujarat Police, American-born Lashker-e-Toiba
terrorist David Headley has claimed before NIA sleuths that Ishrat, who was
killed in a police encounter in Ahmedabad, was a suicide bomber of the
outfit.

Official sources said that Headley shared this information with the
four-member team comprising officials from National Investigation Agency and
Law Department during their visit to Chicago in the US.

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.

Headley's information corroborates the stand of Gujarat Police and the
Centre. The encounter had run into controversy after Jahan's family claimed
that she was just a student and filed an appeal in the court. Gujarat Police
had claimed that the terrorists were in the state to attack Chief Minister
Narendra Modi.

Sources said Headley's reconnaissance missions for Lashkar in India started
in 2006.

Jahan was killed along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two
Pakistani nationals -- Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani -- on June 15,
2004. As per police records, they were intercepted on the outskirts of
Ahmedabad, travelling in a car. When they were confronted, an encounter
ensued in which all were shot dead.

Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar in her petition to Gujarat High Court had
claimed that her daughter was working as a saleswoman for Sheikh's perfumes
business.

Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra suburb in Thane district, was a second year
B.Sc student at Mumbai's Guru Nanak Khalsa College. Having lost her father
two years before her death in 2002, she embroidered clothes and gave
tuitions to help support her family of eight -- including her mother and six
brothers and sisters.

On June 15, 2004, Ishrat and three of her friends, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias
Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan
Johar Abdul Gani were gunned down by Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch
(Detection) on the outskirts of the city. Police claimed that the four were
members of a Lashkar-e-Taiba module and were on a mission to kill Chief
Minister Narendra Modi.

The new revelation by Headley has come as a big contradiction to what a
Ahmedabad court had ruled last year that the killing of Ishrat Jahan was a
"fake encounter."

Full report on :
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