Ishrat's death: A political encounter

The death of Ishrat Jehan, a college student, is difficult to explain for both the Congress and the BJP.

Narendra Modi's government has rejected the judicial inquiry that says senior police officers killed Ishrat and three others to win acclaim from the chief minister.

As back-up, it has the Union government's affidavit which informed the Gujarat High Court that  Ishrat was part of the  LeT. So while the Congress has been opposing the Gujarat government all along on Ishrat's death, its affidavit says the opposite. What human rights activists point out is that even if Ishrat were a terrorist, how could she be killed in cold blood without a trial.

Tamang's report says that Ishrat was driving outside Mumbai with her boyfriend, Javed Sheikh when they were kidnapped on January 12, 2004 by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch. Two days later, they were killed between 8:30 and 9 in the evening.

After Ishrat was killed, policemen put her body in the front seat of a car and shot her again at close range. Then a gun was placed in her hand to make it seem like Ishrat had been trying to shoot the police. The  Tamang report says the police also killed Jisan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana, claiming they were Pakistanis.

The police then either towed or drove the car to the Kotarpur water works at 4:30 am on June 15, 2004. They placed Amjad's body alongside the car and put a 9 mm gun in his hand to show he was killed in action.