Ahmedabad:
It's now clear that the Gujarat police murdered 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan. Judge Tamang's report shows that she was murdered in cold blood.
After taking Ishrat from Mumbai to Gujarat, the police killed her, put her in the front seat of a car and shot her at point blank range and tried to pretend she was shooting at them.
For the family it has been a lonely battle and the judicial report has brought them some closure.
She was all of 19 years when Ishrat Jahan was forcibly whisked away from the neighbourhood of Mumbra in Mumbai along with three others by the Gujarat police.
Two days later, the drama of a so-called encounter unfolded on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The police claimed they had busted a secret plot to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
They also claimed that Ishrat and her companions were Lashkar terrorists - two of them they argued were from Pakistan.
Ishrat was forcibly positioned in the front seat and shot at close range.
At the encounter site, explosives were placed even a gun in her hand to make her look like a killer.
Except her family bravely challenged the version of the police and said their daughter had been framed.
Now, in a knock for Modi's government, a magisterial inquiry has confirmed what the family suspected all along.
The entire encounter was manufactured and even more damning.
"Ishrat was killed because she was Muslim and fitted into Gujarat police's ideas of terrorist," said Justice Tamang.
The men, guilty of killing her and her companions were once hailed as Gujarat's heroes led by DCP D G Vanzara till another controversial fake encounter, the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, saw.. his arrest by the CDI and is in jail.
Justice Tamang's report says these policemen were driven by the desire to get rewards and promotions.
But if Modi should sound defensive, his government sounded the opposite.
More curiously, in an affidavit written on August 6, 2009, the Union home ministry also said that they were LeT operatives.
But for Ishrat's family the judicial report has finally brought closure to a long lonely battle.
Their daughter may no longer be alive but they say they won't let anyone label her a terrorist.
After taking Ishrat from Mumbai to Gujarat, the police killed her, put her in the front seat of a car and shot her at point blank range and tried to pretend she was shooting at them.
For the family it has been a lonely battle and the judicial report has brought them some closure.
She was all of 19 years when Ishrat Jahan was forcibly whisked away from the neighbourhood of Mumbra in Mumbai along with three others by the Gujarat police.
Two days later, the drama of a so-called encounter unfolded on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
The police claimed they had busted a secret plot to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
They also claimed that Ishrat and her companions were Lashkar terrorists - two of them they argued were from Pakistan.
Ishrat was forcibly positioned in the front seat and shot at close range.
At the encounter site, explosives were placed even a gun in her hand to make her look like a killer.
Except her family bravely challenged the version of the police and said their daughter had been framed.
Now, in a knock for Modi's government, a magisterial inquiry has confirmed what the family suspected all along.
The entire encounter was manufactured and even more damning.
"Ishrat was killed because she was Muslim and fitted into Gujarat police's ideas of terrorist," said Justice Tamang.
The men, guilty of killing her and her companions were once hailed as Gujarat's heroes led by DCP D G Vanzara till another controversial fake encounter, the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, saw.. his arrest by the CDI and is in jail.
Justice Tamang's report says these policemen were driven by the desire to get rewards and promotions.
But if Modi should sound defensive, his government sounded the opposite.
More curiously, in an affidavit written on August 6, 2009, the Union home ministry also said that they were LeT operatives.
But for Ishrat's family the judicial report has finally brought closure to a long lonely battle.
Their daughter may no longer be alive but they say they won't let anyone label her a terrorist.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
