Ishrat Jahan was LeT suicide bomber, claims Headley

Pakistani-American terrorist-turned approver David Coleman Headley said on Thursday that Mumbra resident Ishrat Jahan was a suicide bomber for the terror outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba.

"Jahan (who was killed in a 2004 gunfight by Gujarat cops) was a LeT member," Headley said while deposing before special TADA Judge A. Sanap.

Headley claimed that the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi informed him about a botched up operation in India of shooting at the police at a check post.

"A LeT woman operative named Ishrat Jahan was involved. Muzammil Bhatt was the head of our group before Sajid Mir," Headley said, replying to questions by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

On June 15 2004, collegian Ishrat Jahan, and her three friends, Javed Sheikh, Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were shot dead on a road near Kotarpur on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The police team was led by then Gujarat DIG D.G. Vanjara, who was later jailed for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh shooting.

The police claimed that Ishrat Jahan and her associates were LeT operatives plotting to assassinate then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

Subsequently investigations revealed in 2009 that the shooting was staged.