Ishrat: Murdered at 19 by Gujarat Police

"She was as loyal to the country as you and me. We want the guilty policemen to hang," Ishrat's sister says this without a trace of a quiver in voice as she addresses the media. 

Ishrat was 19, a second-year college student working as a sales girl to support her family. In 2004, she was picked up, along with Javed Sheikh, by the Ahmedabad police. Two days later she was killed, along with Javed and two others, for being a Lashkar terrorist who were planning to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

On Monday, a judicial inquiry said none of the allegations were true. Justice Tamang, who investigated the case, said, "Ishrat and her three companions were driving to Ahmedabad  from Mumbai on the night on June 14, 2004 . They were shot at close range, on the highway at Sarkhej, outside Ahmedabad.  The arms used against them included a 9 mm pistol and an AK-56 rifle, the same guns that the Gujarat Police said Ishrat and her companions were carrying."

The Gujarat Police said that 70 bullets were fired in the shootout, but not a single police cartridge was found in the bodies or the car. In fact, forensic evidence showed Ishrat and her companions had not fired at all.

Ishrat Jehan's family home is in Mumbra, on the outskirts of Mumbai, where her family lives in virtual isolation, branded as a family of terrorists. Their Ishrat has been declared innocent now, but neighbours still won't comment on the family or its fight for justice. Ishrat's family may have got what they were looking for legally, but their victory is a hollow one.