->BrownHairedGirl at 02:04, 28 December 2021

2021-12-28T02:04:39Z

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{{Short description|Indian politician}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Ehsan Jafri
| image = ehsanJafri.gif
| imagesize =
| caption = Ehsan Jafri
| birth_date = 1929
| birth_place = [[Burhanpur]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|2|28|1929|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Ahmedabad]], [[Gujarat]], [[India]]
| spouse = Zakia Jafri
| children = 1 daughter
}}
'''Ehsan Jafri''' (1929 – 28 February 2002) was an Indian politician and former member of the [[6th Lok Sabha]] for the [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]], who was killed in the [[Gulbarg Society massacre]], which was one of the episodes of [[Violence against Muslims in India|mob violence against Muslims]] during the [[2002 Gujarat riots]].

A Special Investigating Team appointed by the [[Supreme Court of India]] concluded that he was killed after he fired at an agitated Hindu mob outside his house. His widow Zakia Jafri has subsequently alleged that the state of Gujarat and its then-chief minister, now the current prime minister of India, [[Narendra Modi]], was partly responsible for the violence and lack of police intervention in favor of the victims at Gulbarg Society. This argument was rejected by a Special Investigation Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=SIT says Ehsan Jafri 'provoked' murderous mob|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18031124|access-date=15 May 2013|publisher=BBC News|date=11 May 2012}}</ref><ref name=TH1>{{cite news|title=SIT says Ehsan Jafri 'provoked' murderous mob|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sit-says-ehsan-jafri-provoked-murderous-mob/article3405416.ece|access-date=15 May 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|date=11 May 2012|location=Chennai, India|first=Vidya|last=Subrahmaniam}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Jafri provoked Gulbarg mob: SIT report|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-12/india/31679415_1_gulbarg-society-massacre-case-mp-ehsan-jafri-zakia-jafri|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104185347/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-12/india/31679415_1_gulbarg-society-massacre-case-mp-ehsan-jafri-zakia-jafri|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 November 2013|access-date=15 May 2013|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|date=12 May 2012}}</ref> A review petition was filed by her again and is currently in the Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/sc-adjourns-till-july-zakia-jafris-plea-challenging-sits-clean-chit-to-modi-others-in-2002-godhra-riots-5578248/|title=SC adjourns for July Zakia Jafri's plea challenging SIT's clean chit to Modi, others in 2002 Godhra riots|date=2019-02-11|website=The Indian Express|language=en-IN|access-date=2019-11-11}}</ref>

==Life==
Ehsan Jafri 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 [[RC Commercial High School|R.C. High School]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.visionjafri.org/webpages/pg_ahsanjafri.html |title=Ahsan Jafri Biography |access-date=26 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200430/http://www.visionjafri.org/webpages/pg_ahsanjafri.html |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} His family had to suffer during [[1969 Gujarat riots]] too.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/He-made-200-phone-calls-for-help/articleshow/2861381.cms|title='He made 200 phone calls for help' {{!}} India News |last=5 Mar|first=Rajiv Shah {{!}} TNN {{!}} Updated|last2=2002|website=The Times of India|language=en|access-date=2019-11-11|last3=Ist|first3=14:44}}</ref>

In the 1960s, he had joined the Congress Party of [[Indira Gandhi]], and was heading the city unit by 1972. In 1977, after the [[Indian Emergency (1975–1977)|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==
{{further|Gulbarg Society massacre}}
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,<ref name=FIR>FIR no. 4/5.200, filed at Meghani Nagar police station, quoted in book by Varadarajan, p. 140-141</ref> the violent Hindu 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.<ref name=book>
{{cite book
| title = Siddharth Varadarajan
| author = Gujarat: the making of a tragedy
| publisher = Penguin Books India
| year = 2002
}}p.140-144</ref>
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.<ref name=dawn>{{cite web|title=Police officials led attackers: HRW report on Muslims' massacre in Gujarat |url=http://archives.dawn.com/2002/04/30/top6.htm |publisher=[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]] |date=30 April 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120428003855/http://archives.dawn.com/2002/04/30/top6.htm |archive-date=28 April 2012}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=March 2012}}<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/india0703/India0703full.pdf Human Rights Watch Report]</ref> This claim was repeated by at least five Muslim witnesses presented before the [[Nanavati-Mehta Commission]]{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}.

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.<ref name="thetruth-website">{{cite web|title=Gujarat 2002: The Truth In the Words of the Men Who Did It|url=http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp|publisher=Tehelka|date=7 November 2007|access-date=30 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511203516/http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp|archive-date=11 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Chamanpura is in central Ahmedabad and barely a kilometre from the police
station, and less than 2 km from the Police Commissioner's office.<ref name=indexp>{{cite web|title=Scarred Gulbarg families wait on for justice |date=4 March 2007 |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/story/24787.html|work=[[The Indian Express]]}}</ref> 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.<ref name=indexp/> The FIR by Erda<ref name=FIR/> 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.<ref>
{{cite news
|title = Express Investigation: Top cops knew ex-Cong MP Ehsan Jafri was burning, his friend had sent out SOS
|author = Stavan Desai
|work = [[The Indian Express]]
|url = http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/full_story.php?content_id=59771
|date = 28 November 2004
|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}}</ref>

==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.<ref>
{{cite news
| title = Top guns given go ahead to reinvestigate Guj riots
| publisher = [[CNN-IBN]]
| url = http://www.ibnlive.com/news/top-guns-given-go-ahead-to-reinvestigate-guj-riots/61997-3.html
| date = 26 March 2008
| access-date = 26 March 2008
}}</ref>
[[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.<ref name="IndianExpress newspaper">{{cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/11-get-life-for-gulberg-society-massacre-in-which-jafri-68-killed-2859387/|title=Court says of Gulberg massacre victim Jafri: His firing angered mob, made them kill|date=16 June 2016|work=IndianExpress (newspaper)}}</ref> 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…".<ref name="IndianExpress newspaper"/> 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.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18031124. Retrieved 24 August 2017.</ref>
In April 2012, a Special Investigation Team absolved the then Gujarat Chief Minister [[Narendra Modi]] from killing of Ehsan Jafri<ref>[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</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Zakia Jafri's plea against Modi to be heard|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gujarat/Court-may-hear-Zakia-Jafri-s-protest-plea-against-Modi-others/Article1-1049452.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424133145/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gujarat/Court-may-hear-Zakia-Jafri-s-protest-plea-against-Modi-others/Article1-1049452.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 April 2013|access-date=16 May 2013|newspaper=Hindustan Times|date=24 April 2013}}</ref><ref name="indianexpress.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sc-steps-in-hc-revokes-transfer-of-magistrate-hearing-zakia-plea/1114730/|work=The Indian Express|title=SC steps in, HC revokes transfer of magistrate hearing Zakia plea|date=12 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="zeenews.india.com">{{cite news|url=http://zeenews.india.com/news/gujarat/hearing-on-zakia-jafri-s-plea-to-resume_848851.html|work=Zee News|title=Hearing on Zakia Jafri's plea to resume|date=15 May 2013}}</ref> SIT has strongly opposed this petition<ref>{{cite news|title=SIT opposes Zakia's plea on Modi clean chit|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Ahmedabad/SIT-opposes-Zakia-s-plea-on-Modi-clean-chit/Article1-1049815.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425172249/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Ahmedabad/SIT-opposes-Zakia-s-plea-on-Modi-clean-chit/Article1-1049815.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 April 2013|access-date=16 May 2013|newspaper=Hindustan Times|date=24 April 2013}}</ref> and said that "Modi has never said that go and kill people".<ref>{{cite news|title=Modi did not incite riots: SIT|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Ahmedabad/Modi-did-not-incite-riots-SIT/Article1-1050396.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130426135632/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Ahmedabad/Modi-did-not-incite-riots-SIT/Article1-1050396.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 April 2013|access-date=16 May 2013|newspaper=Hindustan Times|date=25 April 2013}}</ref> 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.<ref name="indianexpress.com"/><ref name="zeenews.india.com"/> However, in December 2013, metropolitan court rejected the petition.<ref name="cleanchit2">{{cite news|title=Zakia's plea against clean chit to Modi rejected| url= http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/zakias-plea-against-clean-chit-to-modi-rejected/article5504467.ece|access-date=26 December 2013|newspaper=The Hindu|date=26 December 2013}}</ref> Zakia subsequently filed an appeal against it in the higher court.<ref name="cleanchit2"/>

==Personal life==
Jafri's wife, Zakia Jafri, survived the carnage. His daughter, Nishrin Hussain, lives in [[Delaware]].<ref name=ur>{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2002-09-09/ahmedabad/27319288_1_godhra-gulbarg-society-communal-forces|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811064616/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2002-09-09/ahmedabad/27319288_1_godhra-gulbarg-society-communal-forces|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 August 2011|title=Jafri's NRI daughter pays tearful visit to Gulbarg Society|date=9 September 2002|work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=14 May 2010}}</ref>

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.<ref name=ur/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/the-gulbarg-society-massacre-what-happened-17556.php The Gulbarg Society massacre: What happened] at [[NDTV]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jafri, Ehsan}}
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Burhanpur]]
[[Category:Indian Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Gujarat]]
[[Category:Lok Sabha members from Gujarat]]
[[Category:6th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:2002 Gujarat riots]]
[[Category:People murdered in Gujarat]]
[[Category:Assassinated Indian politicians]]
[[Category:2000s murders in India]]
[[Category:2002 crimes in India]]
[[Category:2002 murders in Asia]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress (U) politicians]]

Ehsan Jafri - Revision history

->BrownHairedGirl at 02:04, 28 December 2021