Ehsan Jafri

Life

Ehsan Jafri was born in a Dawoodi Bohra Family and belonged to the Shia Muslim community. He was born in Burhanpur, present day Madhya Pradesh in 1929, and his father was Dr. Allahbaksh Jafri. In 1935, Ehsan moved to Ahmedabad, studying at the R.C. High School.

Subsequently, he was elected General Secretary of the Progressive Editor's Union. Around this time, he also completed his law degree and started practising as an attorney in Ahmedabad. His family had to suffer during 1969 Gujarat riots too.

In the 1960s, he had joined the Congress Party of Indira Gandhi, and was heading the city unit by 1972. In 1977, after the emergency when the party was routed in most Indian states, Ehsan managed to win the Ahmedabad seat and became a parliamentarian in the 6th Lok Sabha. Thereafter, he remained active in the party and held several key organizational posts in the Congress Party Administration in Gujarat.

Death

On 28 February 2002, when riots broke out in Gujarat, he was killed by a rampaging mob. By early morning, a large mob gathered at the Gulberg Society in the Chamanpura suburb of Ahmedabad. This was an almost entirely Muslim housing society where the septuagenarian Ehsan Jafri lived. According to First Information Report of the incident filed by police inspector K.G. Erda, the violent mob started attacking Muslim owned establishments in the morning and were dispersed by the police. However, they reassembled around 1 PM armed with swords, sticks, pipe and kerosene. The mob had blown up gas cylinders to blast through walls in the Gulbarg Society. The report also mentions that the rioters were guided by voter lists and computer printouts with the addresses of Muslim-owned properties, information obtained from the local municipal administration. This claim was repeated by at least five Muslim witnesses presented before the Nanavati-Mehta Commission.

Gory details of how former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was hacked limb by limb at Gulbarg Society, then burnt, have been reported in Indian media exposés, in the words of those who did it but not by survivors and victims. These details were part of undercover video reporting by Tehelka news channel.

Chamanpura is in central Ahmedabad and barely a kilometre from the police station, and less than 2 km from the Police Commissioner's office. Believing the area to be safe given Jafri's presence, many Muslims in the area had gathered in his compound. Around 10:30 in the morning, the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, P.C. Pandey, personally visited Jafri and apparently assured him that police reinforcement would be coming. In the next five hours, Jafri and top Congress officials of the state repeatedly kept calling the police and other government officials requesting safe transport for the residents, but no help arrived. The FIR by Erda further stated that the police station had 130 policemen on duty that day, and were well armed with teargas shells. However, no one was deployed to disperse the crowd, despite Ehsan Jafri and top Congress politicians repeatedly contacting the Director General of Police, Police Commissioner, the Mayor, Leader of Opposition in the State and the Parliament, and other top government officials. |access-date = 26 March 2008 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071101043415/http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/full_story.php?content_id=59771 |archive-date = 1 November 2007}}

Investigation of death

The Tehelka report elicited no response from the Gujarat police, and four months later, the Supreme Court appointed a high level investigative team, including the ex-chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate eleven major unresolved cases arising from the riots, including this murder.{{cite news |access-date = 26 March 2008 |archive-date = 27 March 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080327104043/http://www.ibnlive.com/news/top-guns-given-go-ahead-to-reinvestigate-guj-riots/61997-3.html |url-status = dead Gulbarg Society massacre trial restarted at a special court with Supreme Court monitored Special Investigation Team acting as prosecution. On 18 June 2016, Court convicted 24 persons: 11 for life, one for 10 years and the remaining 12 given seven years of rigorous imprisonment. The judgment termed the killings "unfortunate" and the "darkest day in the civil society of Gujarat", but reiterated that "it was the private firing by Ehsan Jafri that acted as a catalyst and which infuriated the mob to such an extent that the mob went out of control…". Though the survivors of the Gulbarg massacre say that Jafri fired his gun only in self-defense after the violent mob started attacking the complex. In April 2012, a Special Investigation Team absolved the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from killing of Ehsan Jafri. Later a protest petition was filed by his wife Zakia Jafri seeking rejection of the said SIT report to local Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra. SIT has strongly opposed this petition and said that "Modi has never said that go and kill people". Later the Supreme Court, through the Gujarat High Court, stayed the routine transfer of the metropolitan magistrate who was hearing the petition on the information of the amicus curiae Harish Salve that the routine transfer due to the end of his term may delay the case. However, in December 2013, metropolitan court rejected the petition. Zakia subsequently filed an appeal against it in the higher court. A three judge bench of The Supreme Court rejected her review petition, on 24 June 2022, giving the reason that "the petition is devoid of any merit".

Personal life

Jafri's wife, Zakia Jafri, survived the carnage. His daughter, Nishrin Hussain, lives in Delaware.

Ehsan Jafri had a lifelong interest in literature. While at school, he had brought out an Urdu magazine. He kept writing even during his years of Labour union struggle. In 1996, he published his volume of poetry titled Qandeel ("Lantern") in Urdu.

References

References

1. (2025-02-02). "Zakia Jafri: Human rights activist and Gujarat riots widow dies aged 86".
2. (2018-03-01). "‘We did everything to live in harmony, yet father was killed’".
3. "The Daughter of Ehsan and Zakiya Jafri Writes: My Mother, My Motherland".
4. Gottipati, Sruthi. (2012-04-24). "A Conversation With: Zuber Jafri".
5. (11 May 2012). "SIT says Ehsan Jafri 'provoked' murderous mob". BBC News.
6. Subrahmaniam, Vidya. (11 May 2012). "SIT says Ehsan Jafri 'provoked' murderous mob". The Hindu.
7. (12 May 2012). "Jafri provoked Gulbarg mob: SIT report". [[The Times of India]].
8. (2019-02-11). "SC adjourns for July Zakia Jafri's plea challenging SIT's clean chit to Modi, others in 2002 Godhra riots".
9. (2022-06-24). "'No larger conspiracy behind Gujarat riots': SC rejects Zakia Jafri plea against clean chit to Modi".
10. "Ahsan Jafri Biography".
11. Shah, Rajiv. (5 March 2002). "'He made 200 phone calls for help' {{!}} India News".
12. FIR no. 4/5.200, filed at Meghani Nagar police station, quoted in book by Varadarajan, p. 140-141
13. (30 April 2002). "Police officials led attackers: HRW report on Muslims' massacre in Gujarat". [[Dawn (newspaper).
14. [https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/india0703/India0703full.pdf Human Rights Watch Report]
15. (7 November 2007). "Gujarat 2002: The Truth In the Words of the Men Who Did It". Tehelka.
16. (4 March 2007). "Scarred Gulbarg families wait on for justice". [[The Indian Express]].
17. (16 June 2016). "Court says of Gulberg massacre victim Jafri: His firing angered mob, made them kill". IndianExpress (newspaper).
18. (11 May 2012). "Gujarat report says MP Ehsan Jafri 'provoked murderers'". BBC News.
19. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120410213717/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gujarat/Narendra-Modi-had-no-hand-in-Jafri-killing-says-SIT/Article1-838214.aspx Narendra Modi had no hand in Jafri killing, says SIT] [[Hindustan Times]] - 10 April 2012
20. (24 April 2013). "Zakia Jafri's plea against Modi to be heard". Hindustan Times.
21. (12 May 2013). "SC steps in, HC revokes transfer of magistrate hearing Zakia plea". The Indian Express.
22. (15 May 2013). "Hearing on Zakia Jafri's plea to resume". Zee News.
23. (24 April 2013). "SIT opposes Zakia's plea on Modi clean chit". Hindustan Times.
24. (25 April 2013). "Modi did not incite riots: SIT". Hindustan Times.
25. (26 December 2013). "Zakia's plea against clean chit to Modi rejected". The Hindu.
26. (25 June 2022). "'No larger conspiracy behind Gujarat riots': SC rejects Zakia Jafri plea against clean chit to Modi". The Indian Express.
27. (9 September 2002). "Jafri's NRI daughter pays tearful visit to Gulbarg Society". [[The Times of India]].