Indians 'killed in staged clash'

[abiab]

A female student and three others were killed by police in a "staged" encounter in the Indian state of Gujarat, a judicial probe has found.

Ishrat Jahan Raza was one of four people shot dead by Gujarat police in 2004 on suspicion of being part of a banned Pakistani-based militant group.

Relatives maintained the victims were killed by police in a staged clash, commonly known as "fake encounters".

Police in Gujarat have denied the allegation.

They say the victims were members of the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

But a judicial probe into the incident has named a senior Gujarat police officer, among others, in connection with the "cold-blooded murder" of the 19-year-old student and three others.

The probe by judge SP Tamag said that police had "kidnapped" the student and three others in the city of Mumbai (Bombay).

They were then taken to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, and killed in "police custody", the probe said.

'Plot'

Ms Raza's mother said she was happy that her daughter's "innocence had been proved".

"This is the first step towards towards justice. We want to remove the stain that my daughter has been branded a terrorist," Shamima Kausar said.

The four were killed in "police custody", the probe said. But the police claimed that they were killed in an "encounter" in Ahmedabad

Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns about so-called "fake encounters" whereby security forces are accused of unprovoked killings in staged clashes.

Police say that Ms Raza and the others who were killed were involved in a plot to kill the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

The Gujarat high court has appointed a committee of three senior policemen for a fresh investigation into the killings and asked it to submit its report by the end of November.

The four were driving near Ahmedabad airport when they were intercepted.

Later police in Mumbai said Ms Raza had no criminal background and had never been involved in any terrorist activity, as claimed by the police in Gujarat.


Source Link

 

[humblehobbes]

The Hindu : Front Page : Ishrat Jahan killing also a fake encounter: probe report

Ishrat Jahan killing also a fake encounter: probe report

Manas Dasgupta

Vanzara, among police officers, named for “cold-blooded murder”

AHMEDABAD: In yet another setback to the Narendra Modi government, the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate, S.P. Tamang, has ruled that the June 2004 killing of Ishrat Jahan and three others was also a case of “fake encounter.”

In his 243-page, hand-written report, Mr. Tamang has named the then “encounter specialist” of the Gujarat police, D.G. Vanzara, among others, accused in the “cold-blooded murder” of the teenaged girl and the three others.

Mr. Vanzara and several other policemen are already in jail in connection with the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, which the government confessed before the Supreme Court was a case of “fake encounter.”

The probe report comes even as a special three-member team of top police officers of the State appointed by the Gujarat High Court for a fresh investigation into the Ishrat Jahan encounter is seized of the matter.

Claiming that Ishrat and the three others were killed by the police officers for their personal interest — to get promotions and appreciation from the Chief Minister — Mr. Tamang appended a list of top police officers, running to about two pages, whom he held responsible for the fake encounter. Besides Mr. Vanzara and his then deputy in the Crime Branch police, N. K. Amin, who along with Mr. Vanzara was arrested in the Sohrabuddin case, the list includes the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, K.R. Kaushik, the then chief of the Crime Branch, P.P. Pandey, and another alleged encounter specialist Tarun Barot.

Mr. Tamang’s report said the Crime Branch police “kidnapped” Ishrat and the others from Mumbai on June 12 and brought them to Ahmedabad. The four were killed on the night of June 14 in police custody, but the police claimed that an “encounter” took place the next morning on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. That rigor mortis set in between 11 p.m. and midnight the previous night clearly pointed to the fact that the police pumped bullets into Ishrat’s lifeless body to substantiate the encounter theory.

The report said explosives, rifles and other weapons allegedly found in the car, in which the four victims were “travelling to Ahmedabad from Mumbai,” and some of the weapons found on their person were all “planted” by the police.

Mr. Tamang said there was no evidence to link Ishrat Jahan and another victim, Javed Sheikh, with the Pakistan-based terror group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. Neither was there anything to establish that they had “come” to Gujarat to kill Mr. Modi.

The police then claimed that Ishrat, a resident of Mumbra near Mumbai; Javed Sheikh, son of Gopinath Pillai of Kerala; and Pakistani citizens Amzad Ali Rana and Jishan Jauhar were connected with the LeT and were coming to Gujarat to assassinate Mr. Modi to avenge the 2002 communal riots.

Just in case someone thought Indian presses are not following it..
This is front page news in today's paper...

 

[afriend]

Yeah very very sad indeed..!! And still the gujt government has got the guts to say it was not staged.!!! Thanks to indepent judiciary... we still have got some hope left..!!! Hang these bastards..!!!!

 

[EyelessInGaza]

Pathetic. Modi is a disgrace, and the police should be hung.

Swine.

 

[Goodperson]

Need to wait for facts if it was fake it would certainly come to light.

Ishrat encounter was not fake: Gujarat govt

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government on Tuesday said it would challenge the report of a metropolitan magistrate that the 2004 gunbattle that killed
Mumbai collegian Ishrat Jahan and three of her friends was faked by police officials who shot them in cold blood.

A day after the report by Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang, state government spokesperson and cabinet minister Jay Narayan Vyas told reporters that the inquiry report was "bad in law and so the state government will challenge it".

He said this was because the sections of the criminal procedure code used in the inquiry were not tenable with the case.

Vyas wondered how could the magistrate proceed with an inquiry in the case when there was already a high-level police investigation ordered by the Gujarat High Court on the very day -- Aug 13, 2009, -- that had been given time till Nov 30 this year.

On June 15, 2004, Ishrat from Mumbra in Thane district and three of her friends, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani, were gunned down by Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch (Detection) on the outskirts of the city.

Police claimed that the four were members of a Lashkar-e-Toiba module and were on a mission to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The metropolitan magistrate's inquiry report says there was no gunbattle between the four youngsters and the police. The report, released to the media by lawyer Mukul Sinha, says the four people were kidnapped from Mumbai June 12, 2004, and killed in cold blood two days later.

 

[afriend]

The medical reports all indicate a staged encounter..!! No matter whether these guys killed where innocent or not..!!! The manner in which they where eliminated is of utmost disgrace to the country..!! We have the courts to decide that.!!! When did the police start to think that they can take law in their own hands..!!! An encounter can be justified if only the situation arises..!! it doesnt mean that we go on killing people just like that.. i had seen on TV a killing of an ex terrorist from assam or manipur he was unarmed was taken into a room and what came out was his dead body..!! This is not the way we are man..!!!

 

[Gabbar]

I cant believe that Modi government is keep getting away with these disgusting crimes. Very sad and hanious crime.

 

[ejaz007]

Indian court rules encounter against ‘LT members’ was staged


NEW DEHI: Five years after Indian police killed three men and a woman suspected of being Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) activists, a court in Gujarat said the incident had been a “staged encounter” and the people killed had no connection with Pakistan. The Gujarat state police had claimed that Ishrat Jahan, 19, a college student and three of her male colleagues were Lashkar members and planned to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, before they were killed in June 2004. In a 243-page handwritten report, Judge SP Tamang said police had abducted the four suspects in 2004 from Mumbai, moved them to Ahmedabad where they were killed in “cold blood”. The report said the policemen’s motive for staging the encounter was to get promotions. iftikhar gilani

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Gabbar]

'Police didn’t fire in self-defence, planted AK-56'​

S P Tamang report rubbishes the police claim that during the encounter one of the four had fired from an AK-56.​

The Ahmedabad police had staged a fake encounter of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others, planted arms on their dead bodies and “framed” them as terrorists, says Magistrate S P Tamang, who investigated the 2004 incident, in his inquiry report.

The report rubbishes the police claim that during the encounter one of the four had fired from an AK-56. It quotes from the handwash reports of those killed, from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), saying there were no traces of gunpowder or ammunition on any of them.

The police in its FIR had said that one of the four took position on a road divider and started indiscriminate firing with an AK-56. But the FSL had not found even a single used cartridge from that spot. The police, says the inquiry report, had planted the AK-56 and a 9 mm pistol to frame those killed as terrorists.

The report also points to other contradictions: while the police FIR said the cops had fired 70 rounds from their service revolver, sten guns and AK-47, the FSL had recovered only 50 used cartridges from the scene of the crime and that too of AK-56 rifles. Not a single used cartridge of sten guns and service revolvers was found from the spot

 

[EjazR]

'My sister was a patriot & so are the rest of us': India Today

Ishrat Jahan's family in Mumbai hailed metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang's report on her "staged encounter killing" along with three others in June 2004.

Friends of Jahan's family even alleged that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi could also have been involved in the fake encounter.

Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar and her children-Mushrat (22), Anwar (21) and Nusrat (17)-addressed a press conference in Thane a day after the report became public.

Mumbra resident and social activist Rauf Lala, who has been helping out the family since Ishrat's death, was also in attendance. "Though a Gujarat magistrate has said the encounter was carried out by the policemen to seek promotions and appease Modi, his involvement in the crime cannot be ruled out," he said.

Lala did most of the talking while Ishrat's family members confined themselves to a statement.

Reading out the statement, Mushrat said her sister was innocent and not a terrorist, as was claimed by the Gujarat Police all along.

"My sister was a patriot and so are other members of our family. We now want the people who killed Ishrat to be given the strictest punishment for their crime," she said.

Ishrat's sister said that thought the verdict would not bring her back, it still went a long way in vindicating the family's stand that the encounter was fake.

Mother Shamima said the family faced major upheavals after the death of its then sole breadwinner.

"She was the only earning member of the family. She was also a bright science student. Her death and the subsequent accusations led to my other children's lives getting ruined. Their education had to be discontinued," she said.

Shamima added that the family managed to earn its daily bread by doing zari work and that her son had only recently managed to get a job.

Lala said the case should not be given a communal colour. "Our lawyers were all Hindu. This is a victory of secularism."

 

[paritosh]

India is a country that tests your patience IMO...

 

[Goodperson]

Gujarat HC stays Tamang report on Ishrat encounter

AHMEDEBAD: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday stayed metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang's report which had described as fake the police
encounter in which alleged terror group operative Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed.

Acting on a a Gujarat government petition seeking a stay on the report, Justice Kalpesh Javheri said the observations made in the report were beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial magistrate.

Justice Javheri also ordered the appropriate authority of the high court to look into the actions of magistrate Tamang and take necessary action.

The next hearing of the case is on September 30. However, the court has given liberty to Ishrat's mother to produce the report before the three-member committee constituted by the High Court last month to investigate the encounter.

It further said the report can be considered as evidence by the committee.

The four persons, claimed to have been killed by the police in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 were Ishrat, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani.

Magistrate Tamang's report has said the encounter in which 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others were gunned down in 2004 while allegedly plotting to kill chief minister Narendra Modi was fake and executed in cold blood by police officers for selfish motives.

The report of the investigation conducted by the magistrate had held senior police officers responsible for "staging" the encounter.

State advocate general Kamal Trivedi, appearing on behalf of the government, had submitted that the judicial magistrate should have sought the permission of the high court to publish or furnish a report to anybody.

The state government had on Tuesday rejected the findings of the report and said it will challenge it in the higher forums.

 

[jaunty]

I really don't care how much good work Modi has done for Gujrat. He imo is a disgrace to the country and thank god we still have good judiciary system. Otherwise this tyrants like Modi would have destroyed the country. Hope one day he gets his payoff for all the wrongdoings.

 

[muse]

More Eyewash



Ex-police officer spills the beans on Gujarat riots

* Says BJP’s Hindutva mascot CM Narendra Modi was involved in high-level conspiracy against Muslim minority

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: A retired top Indian police officer has thrown new light on the 2002 anti-Muslim genocide in western state of Gujarat. In a lengthy letter to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief RK Raghavan, Jaspal Singh, also a former minister has asked for a probe into official records of communications and meetings.

He said these would establish BJP’s Hindutva mascot Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s hand in the anti-Muslim riots. Singh has also demanded interrogation of Modi on what instructions he gave during the riots and subsequently and whether he noticed any acts of omission or commission by the officers, and if so, what action he had initiated to correct the system and discipline those who flouted their duties. Since government functionaries who collaborated in executing the anti-minority violence would refuse to provide relevant evidence, Jaspal Singh wants the SIT to run through documentary evidences on government and police records and then confront them with forensic tests.

He says such a probe would bring out that “the mayhem in Gujarat was the result of a thoroughly thought-out elaborate and heinous strategy to communalise the society at large in Gujarat, with a view to derive political benefits”. Information coming from Jaspal Singh, who has been the city’s police commissioner and then the mayor, is quite revealing as he himself once flirted with the BJP, more so when he claims the 2002 carnage helped the Sangh Parivar achieve “their ever-pursued hidden agenda of treating the Muslim minority as second class citizens”.

Giving details of documentary evidences that would spill the beans, he said, “SIT should go into the series of circumstances indicating criminal motive of the CM Gujarat and his collaborators in projecting the Godhra train fire incident as an outcome of conspiracy by ISI and a terrorist act.” Jaspal claimed a meeting chaired by Modi on February 27, 2002 was the “starting point of anti-minority carnage” and the motivated declaration of ISI hand in the train fire was a part of the larger conspiracy to perpetuate genocidal crimes against the minority for political consolidation of the majority community in favour of BJP.

He has urged the SIT to check the minutes of the crucial meeting chaired by Modi on the day of the Godhra train fire, and interrogate the ministers and eight officers who attended the meeting. Jaspal Singh has also demanded interrogation of Rajendra Kumar, the then CBI joint director incharge of Gujarat, who insisted on the state DGP to deem the burning of train at Godhra as a terrorist act mounted by the ISI.

 

[EjazR]

^^^ The actual open letter Jaspal Singh wrote is posted here
http://www.defence.pk/forums/member...sit-begins-probe-against-modi.html#post474467