Former Union Home Secretary under the United Progressive Alliance government, GK Pillai, on Friday told Times Now that the killing of Ishrat Jahan and three other Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives in 2004 was the result of an Intelligence Bureau operation. The admission has led to an outcry from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, after the Central Bureau of Investigation had earlier said Gujarat police were responsible for their deaths. The Congress, however, said that Pillai’s remarks are politically motivated and questioned the timing of his statement.

An official from the Intelligence Bureau told The Indian Express that if Pillai’s comments were correct and the terrorists were “lured” to Gujarat, then the bureau would “have more than passing knowledge of the circumstances of their death”. Pillai had told Times Now that the operation was “very successful” and was a trap for the terrorists. He said, “We managed to entice the LeT to send their shooters to India and were able to monitor their activities in India and to, in one sense, catch them. It was a very planned operation, something intelligence agencies around the world do.” The IB was headed by KP Singh at the time. Pillai’s information could lead to the questioning of senior security figures from the former UPA government.

After Pillai’s statement on the case, BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Saturday led a youth wing protest march against the Congress in New Delhi. Reports said that some protestors were detained.