Ehsan Jafri
| Ehsan Jafri | |
|---|---|
Ehsan Jafri
|
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1929 Burhanpur, Madhya Pradesh, British India |
| Died | 28 February 2002 (aged 72–73) Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
| Spouse(s) | Zakia Jafri |
Ehsan Jafri (1929 – 28 February 2002) was an Indian politician and former member of the 6th Lok Sabha for the Congress Party, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, which was one of the episodes of mob violence against Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
It has been alleged that on February 28, 2002, he was killed by a mob armed with machetes when he pleaded with them to spare the lives of the women and children who had taken refuge in his home. The Special Investigating Team concluded that he was killed after he fired at an agitated mob outside his house. His widow Zakia Jafri has subsequently argued 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 for the lack of police intervention in favor of the victims at Gulbarg Society. This argument has been rejected by a Special Investigation Committee which concluded that Modi had no responsibility for the incident.
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 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.
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.
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 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. 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 Commission.
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