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AHMEDABAD: Zakia Jafri, widow of 2002 Gujarat riots victim and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, has passed away. She was 86. She passed away in Ahmedabad this morning due to age-related ailments.
'My mother had come to my sister's house in Ahmedabad. After her usual morning chores, she told her family members that she was feeling unwell. The doctor who came to the house to examine her later declared her dead at around 11.
30 am,' said Zakia Jafri's son Tanveer Jafri. The burial will be held next to Ehsan Jafri's grave in Ahmedabad. Ehsan Jafri and his wife were victims of the Gujarat riots that broke out on February 28, 2002, after 59 Karsevaks, who were coming from Ayodhya, died in the Sabarmati Express fire in Godhra.
Ehsan Jafri was among the 69 people killed in Gulmarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood of Ahmedabad. Alleging a conspiracy by top political leaders behind the riots, Zakia Jafri made headlines by fighting a legal battle against them all the way to the Supreme Court. Having waged a long legal battle against the Gujarat government since 2006, she has become the face of the fight for justice for the victims of the riots.
She filed a petition challenging the need for an investigation into the conspiracy and the clean chit given to the then Gujarat Chief Minister, current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and 63 others. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition in 2022. Social activist Teesta Setalvad paid tribute to Zakia Jafri.
Teesta Setalvad was a co-plaintiff in Jafri's petition. It was Teesta's NGO that supported Sakiya Jafri throughout her legal battle..
