It had surprised me that day, June 17 2004, to see Ishrat Jahan’s corner of their one-bedroom house in Mumbra, a largely Muslim ghetto separated from Mumbai both by time and distance. Her table was full of books — mathematics, statistics, science. There was also a half-read novel. One of her teachers at the Khalsa College, where she was studying (BSc, second year), had told me the girl wanted to teach maths after she graduated. “She was very curious, very keen,” he had said. Ishrat, then just 19, had been killed by the Gujarat police in Ahmedabad two days back, on June 15, along with three men for attempting to assassinate Narendra Modi. An AK-47, which investigators later said might have been planted, was found next to her bullet-splattered body. She didn’t have a chance. ====== The timing and quickness of the encounter had surprised many then. Modi, still struggling to explain the riots that followed the Godhra train carnage, was shaky in his chair, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and some of the BJP brass seemingly unconvinced by his show of innocence. The rapid developments in the Ishrat case, eight years after her gunning-down, are surprising many now. Modi, having consolidated his position in the party, is these days gunning for greater glory. On its part, the CBI says it has proof senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau and the Gujarat police were involved in the “fake encounter” — yes, they are calling it that — of Ishrat Jahan. Apparently, a top IB man and a couple of high-ranking Gujarat cops had colluded to generate intel inputs that would eventually lead to the killings. The truth may come out soon. Or it may never, as is often the case in our country. There are hundreds who suffer for things they haven’t done. And there are more hundreds who get away with everything they do. Long after Ishrat is gone, I don’t know how her story will end. But I do hope some day Shamima gets the true answer to the only question she has been asking all these years: Why was Ishrat in Ahmedabad that day?
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 01:37:41 +0000
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