Parties target Modi for Ishrat case, BJP backs him

New Delhi: All political parties on Tuesday slammed the Gujarat government and demanded that Chief Minister Narendra Modi should resign for the June 2004 killing of Mumbai collegian Ishrat Jahan in a "fake encounter".

A day after an Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate's report that Ishrat Jahan and her three friends were killed in a "fake encounter", the Congress hit out at the BJP-led administration of Chief Minister Modi and said it was "a man eating government in Gujarat".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari also appealed to the Supreme Court and Gujarat High Court to "take suo motu cognizance of all the encounter killings between 2001 and 2009 where there are allegations of fake killings".

Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said that such killings are "inhuman" and all those responsible for Ishrat Jahan's death should be punished.

"This is inhuman, if a proper investigation is done then many more skeletons will come out," the Congress leader told IANS.

He said it was surprising that such things were happening in India and demanded that all the officers responsible be punished.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) also sought the resignation of Modi on moral grounds.

"Given the spate of illegal encounter killings which took place under the encouragement of the state government, Chief Minister Narendra Modi should take moral responsibility and quit office," the CPI-M politburo said in a statement issued in New Delhi.

Samajwadi Party MP Kamal Akhter said, "The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre should dismiss the Gujarat government if Modi doesn't resign on moral grounds".

However, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu came out in support of Modi and said, "If anything happens in the state, the Chief Minister is held responsible."

The Gujarat police had claimed that Ishrat Jahan was a member of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and that she and her three friends were on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi when they were gunned down on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004.

However, according to the 240-page report by metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang, the four - Ishrat Jahan, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani - were not linked to any terror group and were killed in a "fake encounter".