Wait, my daughter will be back…then a neighbour brought the morning paper

Her daughter’s dead. But Shamina smiles as she welcomes you to the family’s one-bedroom house. It’s only when she tells you t...

Her daughter’s dead. But Shamina smiles as she welcomes you to the family’s one-bedroom house. It’s only when she tells you that Ishrat is expected home anytime, that you realise Shamina doesn’t know: her daughter, 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan Shamim Raza, was gunned down, along with three others, by the Ahmedabad police yesterday for allegedly plotting the murder of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

As more reporters walk in, Shamina becomes suspicious. And then a neighbour brings in the morning newspaper. Almost immediately, loud wails fill this little house in Mumbra, on Mumbai’s north-eastern edge.

This bizarre disconnect is reflected in Mumbai’s Khalsa College, too, where Ishrat was a student—her batchmates and her teachers say they can’t believe the news. For, if the Ahmedabad police version is right, Ishrat must have led a double life.

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Far away from the reality of her friends and family, migrants from Bihar. When the The Indian Express reached their rented home, her mother, four sisters and two brothers were actually joking about Ishrat being ‘‘the only studious girl in the family’’.

Neighbour Junaid Ahmed Ansari, whose wife gave Ishrat lessons in tailoring, recalled the ‘‘very simple girl’’ from a ‘‘normal family.’’ Her father Mohammed Shamim Raza died two years ago and she supported her family through private tuition.

At Guru Nanak Khalsa College, everyone’s asking: Could this ‘‘sharp, fun-loving girl in salwar kameez’’ have been an assassin?

‘‘She attended classes regularly, was serious about her studies and future. So where did she find time to be a militant?’’ asks a classmate. In fact, her name brings fond smiles from teachers, students, even peons.

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‘‘She did not believe in bunking classes. She was fun to be with and made everyone around her comfortable,’’ said another classmate. There were still others who reacted differently: ‘‘A militant among us, Ishrat Jahan? They’ve got to be bonkers.’’

Teachers recalled an average student, who cleared her Class XII exam on her second attempt, and managed a second class in the first year in college. Apparently, she seemed to enjoy Physics, Mathematics and Statistics, the subjects of her choice.

But there are certain holes in Ishrat’s story which the police are probing. For one, her mother’s contention that this was Ishrat’s first trip out of Mumbai was contradicted by neighbour Sharif Ahmed Ansari, an autorickshaw driver.

Ansari dropped Ishrat and her brother to the Mumbra railway station some months ago. ‘‘She said she was going to Ahmedabad,’’ he said.

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Then, there’s a year-long break in studies. Ishrat’s affidavit to the college on June 3, 2003, as part of admission documents, said she left her previous college in 2001 after completing Class XII because her father died.

Incidentally, Khalsa College has had a brush with ‘‘radicalism’’ in the past, said Registrar K M C Nair. A professor and a student were arrested for their alleged links with Punjab militants in 1986.