AHMEDABAD, June 17: Police and India's ruling party cast doubt on Thursday on an official account that a 19-year-old Muslim woman gunned down this week was planning to assassinate the hardline Hindu leader of the western state of Gujarat.
The ruling Congress party called for an impartial probe into the alleged plot to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is accused of inaction during 2002 anti-Muslim riots and has faced new calls to step down after his party lost national elections.
Gujarat police shot dead university student Ishrat Jahan and three men on Tuesday in the state commercial hub Ahmedabad, saying they had planned to kill Modi at the behest of rebels fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. But police in Jahan's native Thane district, part of Maharashtra state between Mumbai and Gujarat, said they had no proof she had any links to militants.
"Our investigation is still on, but as of now she has no links with terrorist groups," said a police official. Hasmukh Patel, the Gujarat spokesman for Congress, which is in opposition in the state, urged a probe into the incident by India's autonomous Central Bureau of Investigation. -AFP
