“The careers of my children were in jeopardy. They all wanted to study, but they had no one to support their education. Today my children can move ahead,” said Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat Jehan, in a tearful address to the media recently in Mumbai.
For five years, the family endured disgrace, despair and legal demands. “We have spent five years crying. Only I know the agony we have been through,” said Shamima. “These were the worst years of our lives. It was difficult for us to prove our innocence. We were disheartened,” said Ishrat's younger sister Musarrat.
With the HC setting up a three-member team of IPS officers to probe the killings, Shamima is hopeful that "truth will prevail someday''. For Musarrat, the ongoing court battle is a bitter reminder of the irreparable loss and living under the constant gaze of suspicion and distrust.
“The truth will no doubt come out. But the fact remains that we have lost everything. We all had to discontinue our studies. Our job applications were rejected on the grounds that we were Ishrat's siblings. Political leaders who were eager to help us earlier, shunned us,'' an angry Musarrat said.
Ishrat was then the only earning member as Shamima's husband had expired long back. After her death, the family moved to another building in Kausa. But life was not the same.
"We are fighting the court case to restore our honour and to clear the blot on Ishrat. As it is, the police officer (DCP DG Vanzara) who had claimed that my sister had terror links is behind bars for killing in fake encounters. Our case will expose him further. We just want to live with dignity and not be looked up with suspicion,'' Musarrat said, justifying their legal battle.
Having left her studies incomplete, she has now taken up a small job in a local firm just to keep the hearth warm. "My younger brother works in a computer shop but he had to face many rejections earlier. No good company was willing to hire him as he was Ishrat's brother. Our life has been destroyed and this case will help restore our faith in the judiciary and restore our honour,'' she said.
The death of Ishrat Jehan, a college student, is difficult to explain for both the Congress and the BJP. Narendra Modi's government has rejected the judicial inquiry that says senior police officers killed Ishrat and three others to win acclaim from the chief minister.
As back-up, it has the Union government's affidavit which informed the Gujarat High Court that Ishrat was part of the LeT. So while the Congress has been opposing the Gujarat government all along on Ishrat's death, its affidavit says the opposite. What human rights activists point out is that even if Ishrat were a terrorist, how could she be killed in cold blood without a trial.
Report by the Inquiry headed by Metropolitan Judicial Magistrate S.P. Tamang described the encounter with alleged terror operative Ishrat Jahan and three others as "fake". The report says that Ishrat was driving outside Mumbai with her friend, Javed Sheikh when they were kidnapped on January 12, 2004 by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch. Two days later, they were killed between 8:30 and 9 in the evening.
After Ishrat was killed, policemen put her body in the front seat of a car and shot her again at close range. Then a gun was placed in her hand to make it appear like Ishrat had been trying to shoot the police. The Tamang report says the police also killed Jisan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, claiming they were Pakistanis.
The police then either towed or drove the car to the Kotarpur water works at 4:30 am on June 15, 2004. They placed Amjad's body alongside the car and put a 9 mm gun in his hand to show he was killed in action.
Ishrat's killing by the Gujarat police created a sensation across the nation, as the Gujarat police claimed they were on the mission to gun down Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Ishrat's family, however, strongly objected to these claims and have been fighting in the court to re-open the investigations and asking for an impartial probe by the CBI into the killings.
Shamima says: “We are not satisfied. We have no expectations from the Gujarat High Court. We firmly feel that justice will be delivered and truth will be known. When that happens, all those involved in this frame-up should be punished - not with something as simple as death sentence but with a punishment that reminds them of my daughter and family's agony, said Shamima Kausar.
