Gujarat shootouts: Congress, Left intensify demand for CBI probe

Apr 30, 2007, 14:30 GMT

New Delhi, April 30 (IANS) The Congress and the Left parties intensified their demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the staged shootouts in Gujarat after the state government Monday admitted that the wife of an innocent Muslim killed as terrorist was also murdered.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which along with three other Left parties extends crucial support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, even criticised Home Minister Shivraj Patil for remaining silent over the police killings.

'It should be probed at the highest level and the guilty officers should be punished. Not only the officers who are guilty but the complacency of the state government should also be probed,' said CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

His remarks came after the Gujarat government admitted in the Supreme Court that Kausar Bi, wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was falsely framed and killed in an engineered shootout in November, 2005, was also killed later.

The Left and the Congress have demanded a CBI inquiry into the staged police killings in the state since 2002 - the year the state witnessed one of the worst communal violences in the country.

The CPI-M also demanded the resignation of Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, who is alleged to have connived with police officials to kill Sheikh.

'The killing was a perfect example of the state government's aggressiveness, bitterness created by religious divide in the state and high-handedness of police,' said CPI-M MP Mohammed Salim.

Pointing out that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power with the support of the Left parties, he said: 'We have given the support expecting that there would be a secular government protecting the secular credentials of this country.

'But the home minister has failed to recognise the disease of the Gujarat government. He failed to see the concern we are expressing,' Salim said.

'He should have the courage for it,' he challenged.

Acting on a Supreme Court directive, the Gujarat police last week arrested two police officers from the state and one from Rajasthan for killing Sheikh after claiming he was a terrorist with Lashkar-e-Taiba links and planned to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Madhusudan Mistry, a Gujarat MP and chief whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, also made the demand for a CBI probe into the matter.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service