BJP, Congress spar amid demands for apology

Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley’s revelations about Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an encounter in Gujarat in 2004, on Thursday led to a political slugfest with the BJP demanding that the Congress leadership apologise for “targeting Narendra Modi over her killing at the cost of national security”.

The Congress dismissed the BJP’s demand, insisting that the “fundamental question” was whether she and her accomplices were killed in a “fake” encounter. Meanwhile, Union home ministry officials said the charge that Ishrat was a terrorist has been corroborated by Headley.

However, Headley’s disclosures on Ishrat carry little evidential value as his statement was based on hearsay, which carries no weight even though he was making the statement under CrPC Section 164, the officials felt.