"We would like to ask the CBI as to why did it leave out the LET angle during investigation in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case when there was overwhelming evidence about presence of Pakistan-based terror outfit's militants in Gujarat in 2004," the BJP Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad told reporters.
The CBI has also not tried to find out as to what the 19 year-old Jahan was doing in Gujarat and whether she had any rapport with Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - all said to be LET operatives, Prasad said and claimed that even the Pakistan-based terror outfit had acknowledged Jahan and Sheikh as martyrs in its website. But, the premier investigative agency has chosen to ignore all this informations about Jahan's background and directed its investigation with one-point agenda to nail the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said.
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The CBI has also ignored an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report about presence of some LET militants in Gujarat which was corroborated by another LET operative, George Headley, during interrogation by the U.S. Agencies, he said and wondered as to why CBI chose not to probe terror angle in the encounter case despite credible inputs put out by the intelligence officials.
'The IB report goes to the PM and Union Home Minister ....Its report should have been taken seriously and acted upon,' Prasad said and regretted efforts being made by some Congress leaders to malign the agency and demoralise its officers engaged in the task of counter-insurgency works.