CBI team in Kashmir in Ishrat case

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Aug 3: A three member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team is in Srinagar to ascertain the identity of the militants who were killed with Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh in an alleged fake encounter in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2004.
Gujarat Police claimed that the two Pakistani militants Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali alias Salim alias Babar who were killed with the Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh on June 15, 2004 were Pakistani militants.
However, CBI believes that the two militants killed in Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case are not Pakistanis but Indians. The agency is in Kashmir to conduct verification of those reported missing from the Kashmir valley.
Initially Gujarat police and Jammu and Kashmir Police in its investigation have said that the killed two youth were Pakistani nationals and had come from Jammu and Kashmir to target VIP’s in the State of Gujarat.
Sources said, Pakistani militant Shahid Mehmood, who was shot dead immediately after he had identified one of the three men killed along with Ishrat as Amjad Ali, a Lashkar operative who had been trained by Lashkar commander, Muzzamil in Pakistan.
Earlier, during the investigations of the case Gujarat Police had visited Valley to ascertain the identity of the two youth killed in the encounter in Ahmedabad.