NIA document silent on Ishrat Jahan being a LeT suicide bomber

In an apparent turn-around, National Investigation Agency's (NIA) charge sheet is silent on American terrorist David Headley mentioning the name of Mumbai college student Ishrat Jehan, who was killed by Gujarat police in a controversial encounter, as a Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist.

Senior home ministry officials had claimed that Headley has told NIA sleuths that Ishrat Jahan, a Mumbai girl killed in an encounter in Ahmedabad, was a suicide bomber of the outfit.

The officials had said Headley shared this information with the four-member team of NIA and law department during their visit to Chicago in the US in June this year.

However, the 106-page charge sheet, on which NIA secured an Interpol worldwide arrest warrant against five Pakistani nationals, including two serving army majors, does not speak about Ishrat Jahan.

The girl, whose death had sparked a major controversy, was alleged to be a member of Lashkar's suicide squad who had been inducted by top LeT operative Muzamil.

The controversy broke out after Jahan's family claimed that she was just a student and filed an appeal in the court stating so. Gujarat police had claimed that the terrorists were in the state to target chief minister Narendra Modi.

The NIA charge sheet had not even touched the June 15, 2004, encounter in which Jahan was killed along with Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali and Jishan Johar Abdul Ghani.

As per police records, they were intercepted on the outskirts of Ahmedabad while travelling in a car. When they were confronted, an encounter erupted in which all were shot dead.

Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, in her petition before the Gujarat high court, had claimed that her daughter was working as a saleswoman for Sheikh's perfumes business.