Ishrat Jahan: Female suicide bomber or innocent girl, IB, CBI have different takes

Mumbai/Ahmedabad/New Delhi: Ishrat Jahan, the Mumbai girl, who was shot with three others by a joint team of Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau in 2004 has become a riddle of sorts. While the CBI which is conducting the encounter probe says, Ishrat was innocent and working in a Mumbra shop selling perfumes, Intelligence Bureau Intelligence Bureau chief Syed Asif Ibrahim in his letter to CBI has emphatically said, Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist.India TV has in its possesion the letter dated June 19, 2013, in which the IB has said, reliable inputs had been received that Lashkar-e-Toiba has directed its agents in India to keep watch on the activities of BJP leaders like L K Advani and Narendra Modi. IB had written a letter to all DGPs of state governments on April 22, 2004. IB director Asif Ibrahim's letter states, joint director SIB had verbally told Ahmedabad Police Commissioner that two Pakistani terrorists with a Punjabi accent are active inside Gujarat, and a Pune-base Indian was helping them. The IB letter also mentions inputs received from FBI's interrogation of 26/11 accused David Headley in Chicago. The letter says, Headley had told FBI that Ishrat Jahan was a female suicide bomber of Lashkar-e-Toiba, who was inducted by LeT commander Muzammil. The letter says, FBI had arrested the US citizen of Pakistani origin David Headley in September 2009 for his close association with LeT. The IB, quoting inputs from FBI, has said in the letter that LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had told Headley about a female suicide bomber named Ishrat, appointed by Muzammil. Lakhvi had told Headley that Muzammil planned to target Akshardham temple, Somnath temple and Siddhi temple. The IB has also mentioned a revelation by an LeT operation Pakistani national Shahid Mahmood Basra. it says, Muzammil had entrusted the task of targeting a VIP to terrorist Babar alias Abdul Adnan. Muzammil had asked Basra to help Babar in this task. Basra had also revealed that Babar was among the four killed in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004, as shown on TV. The IB has even gone to the extent of attaching the statement of David Coleman Headley which it had received from National Investigation Agency. Headlery had told that in the last days of 2005, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had introduced Headley to Muzammil, adding that Muzammil's capability was questionable because his module Ishrat Jahan had failed. IB's letter to CBI makes it clear that Ishrat Jahan and her associates were linked with LeT and they had come to Gujarat to carry out a big strike. But Ishrat Jahan's family says, she had no such links. Nine years ago, nobody had heard of Ishrat's name, but on June 15,2 004, when she was killed with three others in Naroda, Ahmedabad, her name hit the headlines. Gujarat police claims, Ishrat had come to Gujarat with the intention to kill chief minister Narendra Modi. The question arises, what was Ishrat Jahan doing with two Pakistanis in Gujarat? The story starts in the beginning of 2004, when IB recorded telephonic talk between Pak-based LeT and their Indian associates. They had set up a team comprising of Ishrat, Javed, Amjaz and Zeeshan to carry out a big strike in Gujarat. IN August 2009, five years after the encounter, Under Secretary, Internal Security, Home Ministry R V A Mani gave an affidavit to Gujarat High court furnishing details about all the four persons killed in the encounter. The affidavit had clearly stated that Javed Sheikh, associate of Ishrat Jahan, had arranged the arrival of the two Pakistan LeT terrorists, provided them with weapons and had prepared the plan to kill Modi. The Home Ministry affidavit had clearly stated that Javed Shaikh was actually Pranesh Pillai of Kerala, and he had changed his name and religion. Pranesh Pillai had accepted Islam. The affidavit had stated that he had a criminal background, and there were four cases against him between 1992 and 1998. During this period, Pranesh Pillai met Ishrat Jahan, who was them working as a salesgirl. Javed was dealing in perfumes and they struck up a relationship in Mumbra. According to the affidavit, Javed went to Dubai on a fake passport in 2003 on a Hindu name.The affidavit says, Ishrat's family did not know what she was actually doing with Javed Shaikh. Doubts arose, when after her killing, a LeT faction issued a statement describing her as a martyr. According to the affidavit, this wa done to mislead the court and thumb a nose at Indian security agencies. The affidavit mentions the third person Amjad Ali as a Pakistani national hailing from Sargodha, where the PAF airbase is located. The affidavit quoted Pune police inputs to say that when Javed Shaikh bought an Indica car, Amjad was with him. This was the same Indica car, in which Ishrat was shot with Amjad Ali. The affidavit states, between June 25-28, J&K police had arrested 18 LeT terrorists, and had then informed IB that Amjad Ali had already entered India.Says BJP leader Ravi Shankar: "Lashkar-e-Toiba had declared Ishrat Jahan and Javed Shaikh as martyrs on its websit. LeT also publishes a newspaper praising them as martyrs". Zeeshan Jauhar, the fourth person killed in the June 15, 2004 encounter, was a Pakistani, who had entered through Pak Occupied Kashmir. The affidavit says, Zeeshan had made an I-card for himself in J&K and then reached Gujarat to carry out a big strike. This IB report was prepared when M K Narayanan was National Security Adviser in the UPA-I government. The question arises, why no further probe was done on the basis of this report. The question also arises how a US national in Chicago David Coleman Headley came to know of a Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan. What could be the connection between the two? Headley, the mastermind of 26/11 attacks, had described 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan as a female suicide bomber.