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Revelations have surfaced linking Tahawwur Rana, an associate of 26/11 terror plotter David Coleman Headley, to a 2004 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plot to assassinate then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In an exclusive investigation by The Sunday Guardian, newly accessed documents reveal that Ishrat Jahan killed in an encounter in June 2004 was part of this terror module, challenging the long-standing narrative that portrayed her as innocent.
According to three crucial documents reviewed by The Sunday Guardian, including interrogation records from the National Investigation Agency (NIA), a legal brief shared by a US Embassy official in 2010, and a 2013 Intelligence Bureau (IB) note to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Ishrat Jahan was a Lashkar operative tasked with eliminating Modi in a suicide attack.
The documents suggest that Rana’s involvement with LeT was not limited to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. His close ties with Headley placed him within the timeline when the Ishrat operation was planned by Lashkar commanders, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Plot to Eliminate Modi and Cover It Up Politically
Investigative sources claim that the broader conspiracy to kill Narendra Modi was designed to halt his political rise. Rana’s interrogation, if pursued diligently, could uncover the role of domestic collaborators in this high-stakes plot.
Adding a political twist, a 2009 affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Gujarat High Court admitted Ishrat Jahan’s terror links. This reportedly enraged a top Congress leader from western India, who wrote to the PMO expressing concern that such an affidavit weakened attempts to frame Modi and the then Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in the encounter case.
In October 2013, just months before the 2014 general elections, a high-level meeting allegedly took place at a Union Cabinet Minister’s residence in Delhi. According to sources, at least three Union Ministers, a senior Congress leader, and a top CBI official were present. One minister reportedly pressured the CBI officer to torture IB officers into falsely admitting that intelligence inputs on Jahan’s Lashkar links were fabricated on Modi’s orders.
Headley Confirmed Ishrat’s LeT Links in 2009
David Headley had, as early as 2009, confirmed to US investigators that Ishrat Jahan was associated with LeT. This was first reported by The Sunday Guardian in 2013 and again in 2016 when it detailed how UPA-era ministers allegedly sought to implicate Modi in the encounter case.
The revelations have reopened debates about how national security and intelligence were manipulated for political ends. Former PM Manmohan Singh is said to have repeatedly warned against using the IB for political purposes, and even two former Home Ministers reportedly tried to insulate the agency from these efforts.
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