New Delhi:
Terming as "absolutely false" the allegation that Ishrat Jahan, who was killed by the Gujarat Police in 2004, had terror links, her sister Musharrat today claimed she was innocent and was murdered.
"The allegation that she had any links with terrorists is absolutely false. My sister was a hard-working innocent girl who was murdered," said Musharrat while addressing a solidarity programme "Justice for Ishrat" organised by civil society members and women's organisations here and in Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Purnea (Bihar).
She said that "after our father's death, Ishrat (who was pursuing her Bachelor of Science programme) used to give tuitions to children for an earning after her college as she had to take care of family.
"She is being termed as a terrorist because she was with Javed. But how can she become a terrorist when she was even afraid of cockroaches? I had clarified earlier many times, and today also I want to make it clear that she had met Javed through a local boy as she wanted a job because she couldn't give tuitions as during summer vacations the classes are closed and she wanted money to keep her family going," Musharrat said.
Ishrat Jahan was killed by Gujarat Police in an allegedly fake encounter in 2004.
"Is it a crime to be a poor Muslim family in this country? Why do we have to prove every time that we are not terrorists? Her killing has badly hurt our reputation due to which our family is broken. But we have faith in our judicial system and truth will come out," said Musharrat.
Condemning the killing of Ishrat, CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat said "it reflects Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's model of governance and "we condemn the politics of intimidation, encounter killings."