About a girl

There is the question of whether or not Ishrat Jahan was a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist. The CBIs chargesheet is silent on this. But this question is not immediately relevant,since the courts mandate to the CBI was to investigate the circumstances of her killing,and because those accused of terror deserve due investigative and legal process as much as anyone else. A question of long-term import raised by the CBI chargesheet concerns the mission and responsibility of intelligence agencies. This,after all,is the highly unusual situation of IB officers figuring in a CBI chargesheet. Though Rajendra Kumar is not accused in this document,there may yet be a supplementary chargesheet that goes further. This could set an unsettling precedent for the national intelligence agency,which is accorded certain protections,to enable its highly sensitive work. If this understanding and practice is to change,then it must be done carefully and systematically,not in a manner that might invite suspicions of the pursuit of a short-term political agenda. If it is deemed necessary,such a change must be envisioned and deliberated upon at the highest levels and the prime minister himself must oversee the transition.

Extra-judicial killings are an unacceptable phenomenon. They have occurred across states,and the police often get away with it,citing the heated situation,or the systems alleged incapacity to prosecute those believed to be criminals. In staged encounters,the killing is deliberate,the proof of criminality planted later,and if Ishrat Jahan and others were indeed killed in a fake encounter,then all those responsible must be punished. But both the cause of justice in this individual case,as well as the larger predicaments it frames,are ill-served by the fevered political atmosphere that surrounds it.