TRIVANDRUM, 20 June 2004 — The father of Javed Gulam Ali Sheikh has demanded a probe by an independent agency into the killing of his son by the Gujarat police in what he termed as a “fake encounter”.
Sheikh, 32, was one of four people shot dead by the state police saying they plotted to kill Narendra Modi, the controversial chief minister of Gujarat. The state police said they were members of the banned Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
On Thursday, the police in Bombay said 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan Raza, one of the four “plotters”, had no criminal background and had never been involved in any terrorist activity, raising doubts about the Gujarat state police theory.
Sheikh’s father, Gopinathan Pillai, said his son and family stayed with him at the family’s village residence in Kerala for a week and they left for Pune on June 5.
He identified his son from the television footage that showed the bodies and his son’s car. Sheikh, a native of Noornad near Mavelikkara in central Kerala who embraced Islam ten years back, came home driving the same car.
“He converted to Islam only to marry a Muslim girl. He had no links with any organization. He can’t even kill a bird,” Pillai said.
The villagers who met him early this month also do not believe the “kill-Modi-plot” or his links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, as claimed by the police in Gujarat.
Pillai said he would petition the federal government to order a probe by the independent Central Bureau of Investigation into the killings and “conspiracy” by the Modi administration facing deep political crisis.
“I have stayed with his family in Pune for a week. I could not find any suspicious behavior,” he added.
According to the police here, Sheikh possessed a passport issued on his Hindu name from Cochin, and he had recently visited Oman. Pranesh Kumar Pillai changed his name after his conversion to Islam.
He was residing in Pune over the past many years along with his wife and his three children (two daughters and one son).
Police in Pune also have confirmed that he had no criminal record. He owned a small cloth and perfume shop in the Vishrantwadi area and was not doing well in business either.
Reports from Pune said residents at his Kalas housing society area in Vishrantwadi are as yet unable to digest the news that their neighbor was linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Javed’s house was searched and sealed by the police, his wife Fareeda, a native of Pune, and in-laws were being questioned and his phone records were being scrutinized.
Sheikh came to Kerala to attend his brother’s marriage in 1997, for the first time after his 1990 marriage against the wishes of his parents. He frequently visited his home with his wife and kids in recent years.
His relatives said Sheikh was a quiet person and freely mingled with relatives and friends.
Hindu March Ends Peacefully
An annual Hindu procession that had stoked fears of fresh religious violence in the volatile Gujarat state ended peacefully yesterday under the watchful eyes of thousands of armed policemen.
Rooftop sharpshooters and surveillance helicopters watched on as hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees followed a series of hand-pulled, brightly decorated chariots trundling through the commercial capital, Ahmedabad.
Chief Minister Modi inaugurated the march in Ahmedabad, which bore the brunt of an outbreak of religious violence in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
“The rath yatra (chariot march) has ended peacefully in most parts of Gujarat. Even in Ahmedabad, it has passed through the sensitive areas and we don’t foresee any trouble,” a senior police official told reporters.
Police snipers took positions on top of buildings and helicopters hovered along the route of the march to monitor events and avoid a repeat of the 2002 clashes, India’s worst religious violence in a decade.
Day-long processions are being held simultaneously in 80 towns across the western state, with the march covering 25 km (15 miles).
