Shamima Kausar with her children shows her slain daughter’s photo. Inset: Ishrat Jahan.

Mother of ‘fake’ encounter victim rejects terrorist’s claim Ishrat was LeT operative

Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat Jahan who was killed in a police encounter in 2004, has rejected David Coleman Headly’s statement claiming Ishrat was the woman killed in an unsuccessful operation launched by the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

Ishrat, a 19-year-old resident of Mumbra, was killed in a widely believed fake encounter in 2004 by the Gujarat police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Although the Gujarat police had claimed that Ishrat, Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, were LeT operatives who had plotted to kill the then state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an investigation carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation later rejected the claim and concluded the encounter had been staged by former Gujarat Police Deputy Inspector General D. G. Vanzara.

Ishrat’s mother said that Headly had said the same thing before as well and “I had replied even then.”

“Has any new evidence come up now? Does he have anything to back what he is saying or is it the same old statement spouted out again,” questioned Kausar from her Mumbra residence. “The facts of the case have been proved in the courts. This is just a ploy by the guilty who are powerful to salvage their names that have been besmirched, said Kausar, as quoted by the Indian Express.

On Thursday during his deposition before a Mumbai court via video conferencing from the US as part of a plea bargain deal, Headley said that Ishrat was linked to LeT.

Although Headly did not refer to Ishrat by name, he was aided into admitting by the process of elimination by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.