For India’s Secularists – Sare Jahaan Se Accha, Ishrat Jahan Beti Hamara

It looks like that even after India’s own intelligence agencies investigation, US intelligence Agency FBI’s inputs and the convicted LeT terrorist David Coleman Headley’s testimony to Indian Court, the Secular parties in India led by Congress and Left Front, some Jihadi sympathiser media and activists are not ready to listen to any logic and still playing their broken record that Ishrat Jahan was an innocent girl killed in a fake encounter by the then Gujarat police under Narendra Modi.

Ishrat Jahan was killed alongwith Javed Seikh a known LeT sleeper cell member & two Pakistani nationals - Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani - both LeT terrorists, on June 15, 2004. The whole Ishrat incident has 4 important elements –

1. Was Ishrat a terrorist ?

2. Was the encounter a fake one and if so what was the motive?

3. Was the encounter necessary ?  

4. Is this incident being politicised for vote bank politics even at the cost of demoralizing the law enforcement & security agencies?  

I would like to place a few facts & analyse, based on those 4 elements :-

1. If Ishrat was innocent, is there any explanation as to why she had gone to Ahmedabad, which is almost 500 km away from her home in Mumbai with an LeT operative Javed Sheikh. If she was working for Javed as a sales girl of perfume and If was abducted by Gujarat police and kept in confinement, why was her family never lodged any police complain when they didn’t hear from her for several days. Also, there is proof that this was not her first visit to Gujarat with Sheikh, she went there earlier too. She even visited UP with him.

In 2004, IB recorded a few conversations between the 3 people killed alongwith Ishrat and their Pakistani handlers, clearly pointing towards some plan to kill important political leaders in Gujarat and also commit act of terror in public places. The news channel Headline Today run a story on those and even played the tapes. Soon after Isharat and her 3 accomplishes were killed, LeT had owned up Ishrat, with its Lahore-based mouthpiece 'Ghazwa Times' describing her as an LeT activist & martyr and taking umbrage at the action of Indian cops in removing her veil.

In 2009, the union home ministry under the then home minister Chidambaram and home secy GK Pillai submitted an affidavit in Gujarat High Court certifying that there were enough proof of Ishrat and her 3 accomplishes were LeT operatives.

2. If the encounter was fake, why CBI had completely failed to explain what was the ulterior motive of the IB & Gujarat Police to kill these 4 people other than saving the nation and its people from terrorist attacks when out of 4 killed, 3 were known terrorists & 2 of them were Pakistani nationals illegally entered India to wage war against this nation & it’s people.

3. In 2010, FBI during its interrogation of David Coleman Headley, was told with details that Ishrat was a LeT operative (member of LeT women wing) recruited by Muzammil, an Let commander incharge of India operations till 2007 and was part of a module planned to kill important politicians in Gujarat including Narendra Modi and wage war against india. The same statement was repeated by Headly in his deposition 2 days back to the special Indian court set up to investigate 26/11 Mumbai attack.

It should also be remembered that fight against terrorism is an asymmetric war waged against an enemy who does not play by the rules and that nowhere in the world such organizations engaged in a shadowy war against terrorists, operate and can succeed within the rules applicable to normal security agencies dealing with common criminals. After the various terror attacks in India in public places including 2001 Parliament attack and specially the Indian airlines plan hijack incident of 1999, the security agencies had taken a decision to minimize taking terrorists in custody. Also, if we analyse many other encounters including Batala House in Delhi, we will find that this was not the only case where some terrorists probably could have been taken into custody instead of killing. Terrorists should be treated as special class of criminal & enemies of the state and must be eliminated without any hesitation. Even the collateral damage, if it occurs must be overlooked for the safety of the country and its citizens. India has shed enough blood & the criminally insane as well as agents of Pakistan/Bangladesh, who behave like bloodhounds should be shot at site as it is in the interest of the security of the masses.

4. Every Govt. must protect the people who sacrifice their life every day for keeping the nation secure and not allow them to become fodder of terrorists & jihadis.  Politics must be set aside while dealing with terrorism. The intelligence agencies & its personnel must be treated with respect and not as fodder to get more votes to remain in power. But in this Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the then Congress led UPA Govt & their members tried to use it as a political tool to settle score with Narendra Modi. Ishrat Jahan case clearly shows that the Congress Party, Left Front, JD(U), AAP and their likes are playing a cynical game to tap Muslim angst over terror probes for electoral gains. These Political parties, who  had tacitly encouraged Muslim fundamentalists in order to garner their support during the elections even by canvassing with Osama lookalikes in Muslim dominated areas, are playing the appeasement card. For them votes are evidently more important than national security. This attitude of living in a denial and obtusely refusing to accept the reality & facts by issuing such statements to appease  muslim community is demoralizing the security agencies & posing threat to national security. First by doubting that Ishrat was a terrorist and then by doubting the authenticity of the encounter and lastly by questioning the motive of the intelligence agencies like IB & putting pressure on another investigating agency, to shield, aiding & abetting the disruptive forces of terrorism & their sympathisers – they are hell bent on demoralizing the security forces & intelligence agencies and thereby endangering the sovereignty & integrity of the nation. It is well known in the intelligence circle that ISI has been funding politicians in India. Are the services of the ISI & LeT now being obtained to influence vote-bank politics?