Her apologists must heed Headley’s confession
With 26/11 co-conspirator David Headley confirming in his deposition before a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was indeed a lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative, the malicious political propaganda that had been unleashed by her apologists must end. In 2004, Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old college student suspected of conspiring to assassinate Mr Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, was killed along with three associates by Gujarat Police in an armed encounter. Whether this encounter was staged is still being decided in a court of law. However, what has become clear is that Ishrat Jahan was no saint or martyr. She was an active member of a anti-India terrorist group and was planning to take down a sitting head of Government. This is not to suggest that she didn't deserve her day in court (assuming she was killed in a ‘fake encounter') or that it must not spark a larger debate on state-sanctioned extra-judicial killings that's for another day. The crucial issue now is the manner in which Ishrat Jahan's terror credentials were covered up or brushed aside with the sole intention of tarnishing the image of Mr Modi and his Government in Gujarat.
In 2004, the Intelligence Bureau already knew about Ishrat Jahan's connections to the leT and its Gujarat station had shared the information with Gujarat Police, prior to the encounter. After the incident, a lahore-based leT-affiliated publication also confirmed that Ishrat Jahan and her companions were lashkar operatives. This fact was noted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and brought to the attention of the Gujarat High Court in 2007. Soon after, the leT's political wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa'ah, headed by the 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, retracted the statement. In 2010, the National Investigation Agency interrogated David Headley who reiterated that Ishrat Jahan was an leT operative and had been told as much by senior group commander Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also informed the NIA separately that Headley had told US authorities about a “female suicide bomber”. However, in 2011, the NIA told the Gujarat High Court that news reports of Headley's comments on Ishrat Jahan were “baseless”. This was a lie that was exposed in 2013 when the NIA note on this issue was brought into the public domain. At that time, it was also found that the section on Ishrat Jahan's terror links was deleted from the note after it had been shown to the Prime Minister and other top Government officials. To make matters worse for the Congress-led UPA Government that was at the helm, former IB Director Aijt Doval, who is now the National Security Advisor, said there was “impeccable evidence” to prove Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist.
The Congress-led Government of the day knew well that Ishrat Jahan was a terrorist. And yet, repeatedly and systematically, it sought to hide this fact from the public so that it could paint a political adversary in bad light. In the process, it also politicised what should have been a non-partisan security issue and polarised relations between communities. This only shows that, when it comes to politicking, the Congress's dirty tricks department has no problem in deifying a terrorist even if that’s what it takes to humiliate a political rival.
