Amidst reports of Pakistani American terrorist, David Coleman Headley, naming Ishrat Jahan as a LeT operative during his deposition as approver in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks case, and former home secretary, G.K. Pillai, alleging that Congress leader, P. Chidambaram, rewrote an affidavit submitted to court, omitting Ishrat’s links with the terrorist outfit, the spotlight has once again shifted to the Ishrat encounter case.
While there is a national debate going on the issue, ironically the residents of Mumbra, and especially Rashid Compound, where Ishrat’s family was residing at the time of the incident, are least interested in talking about it. While the majority of them still believe that Ishrat’s encounter was fake, they are not completely sure that Ishrat had no terror links.
On visiting Rashid Compound, most people avoided speaking on the subject and categorically told this correspondent that they did not wish to get into “all this”. Some did speak on condition of anonymity, but their reaction only went to show that they were unable to come to any conclusion, either in favour or against Ishrat.
The house where Ishrat’s family members were residing as paying guests at the time of the incident has now been rented out to some other family from Uttar Pradesh. The door was locked. However, a youth in the neighbourhood agreed to speak to the correspondent on condition of anonymity. “I was too young at that time and for us, it was like any other family and hence, everybody was shocked to hear news of the encounter,” was all he said. But he added that after Ishrat’s death, her family left the house and ever since, some four to five families resided there as paying guests — most of them unaware that Ishrat used to stay in the same place. The secretary of the building too refused to speak, saying he had shifted to this building long after the incident. He also said that most of the old families had moved out and nobody would want to speak about the incident or about Ishrat’s family.
Sagir alias Raju Ansari, contractor and a social worker, and son of former Congress municipal corporator, Idris Ansari, who was among the dozen-odd people who had gone to Gujarat to bring back Ishrat’s body, asked, “Whom should we believe: Judge Tamang, the CBI and SIT, or a terrorist All these agencies have said that the encounter was fake. And the team behind the killings did not produce any concrete evidence to substantiate their claim that the encounter was genuine.”
‘’We would have supported the police team, had they brought some concrete evidence to show it was a genuine encounter. Irrespective of caste and creed, whoever is against our nation should be termed a terrorist. If a man of Mr Pillai’s stature felt pressurised not to speak the truth, how can we expect a common man to speak the truth We feel like he has misguided the nation for 13 years and there is no justification for why he kept quiet for so long,’’ said Mr Ansari.
Meanwhile, Ishrat’s family still maintains that she was innocent and that her name is simply being used for political gains.
This correspondent met Ishrat’s mother and brothers who are residing in an old, low-grade building. “Due to safety and security reasons, we wanted to shift to a building which has CCTV cameras and a watchman, but nobody is willing to accept us as paying guests,” said Ishrat’s mother, Shamima Kauser.
Ms Kauser claimed that she was frustrated with the mental and social disturbance caused to her family every time Ishrat’s name hit headlines. She said, “What else is this if not politics Who is Headley Where is he Our case is in Gujarat and he is making some wild allegations in a Mumbai court, which would not be used as evidence in our case. This shows that Ishrat’s name is intentionally being used to create a mindset.”
“People can not imagine the kind of impact that a headline has had on our lives. I am already sick and whenever I come across news about Ishrat, I find it is portrayed in a negative sense, and my blood pressure shoots up. My younger son cannot concentrate on his studies. We do not have any personal life and do not wish to repeat before the media what we have been saying since I lost my daughter,” said Ms Kauser. “Except for his hollow words, what concrete evidence does Headley have to prove his claims and as per reports, he did not take Ishrat’s name on his own. Some names were rattled before him and only then did he point out her name, so how can we believe that he was not forced to take Ishrat’s name,” she added.
Twelve years after the incident, even Ishrat’s grave has lost its significance. When this correspondent asked the man who digs graves in Mumbra about the location of her grave, he said it was not possible to identify it after all these years.
While several people in Mumbra avoided speaking on the issue, Qaiyum Pathan, who shifted to Mumbra only three years ago, said that despite being new in the area and not having any personal knowledge about Ishrat, he believes that the way the question was asked about Ishrat to Headley, it failed to instill confidence in the public’s mind. Mr Pathan questioned as to why the prosecution had to give names as option to Headley and why the latter only spoke about Ishrat and not the ones who were killed along with her.
Abdul Rauf Lala, who was associated with the NCP around two years ago, has been supporting Ishrat’s family since the encounter and has also been speaking on their behalf. “We have moved an application to expedite the Ishrat encounter case in Gujarat high court but the CBI, which is claiming to have concrete evidence against the police officers, is not moving ahead with the trial for want of sanction to prosecute them. We believe that whoever has any evidence in this case, even Headley and Mr Pillai, should come to the trial court in the Ishrat encounter case.”
“We also believe that whoever has moved the Supreme Court, seeking discharge of the accused police officer, will be helpful to us because that way, the court may start the trial and we are sure that justice will be done. The value of the affidavit that Mr Pillai is talking about has been blown out of proportion because it involves technicalities like the first affidavit was based on media reports and Mr Tamang’s report, which came later, said something else, and hence, the second affidavit filed on the basis of Mr Tamang’s report is more reliable and so on ” said Mr Lala. He also questioned why the IB did not inform the Maharashtra police about Javed and Ishrat’s activities despite belonging to the state.
