By IANS,
New Delhi : The home ministry Wednesday said it stood by its affidavit on the controversial killing of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan and three others in an alleged fake shootout five years ago after the Gujarat police claimed they were terrorists.
"We stand by our affidavit (claiming the four were terrorists)... we are not backtracking," Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters.
"Even if they were terrorists, we cannot kill them in cold blood," he added.
Pillai was replying to a question about the home ministry's viewpoint following a magisterial inquiry in Gujarat that said the four were not terrorists and had been killed by police officials in cold blood.
Ishrat, a college student, and her friends Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Shaikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were shot dead by the Ahmedabad police's Crime Branch on the outskirts of the Gujarat city June 15, 2004. Police said they were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists and were conspiring to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The home ministry had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, maintaining that the four had links with the LeT.
Ahmedabad's metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang's probe report released Monday asserted there was no shootout between the four and police. The report said the four were students and had been kidnapped from Mumbai June 12, 2004, and killed two days later.
Under pressure after the probe report, the Modi government has cited the home ministry affidavit and insisted that the four were terrorists.
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