Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday remembered former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulberg Society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat violence.
Paying tribute to Ehsan Jafri on the anniversary of the Gulberg Society massacre, Chief Minister Vijayan, in a post on X, said the “brutal martyrdom” of Jafri is a chilling reminder of the cost of communal hatred.
“A former MP and a staunch voice for a secular India, his brutal martyrdom remains a chilling reminder of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and the horrific cost of communal hatred,” Vijayan wrote in the post.
In a separate social media post, Vijayan noted that 69 people, including Jafri, were burnt to death in the alleged attack by the Sangh Parivar on Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
The Kerala CM also recalled the “relentless struggle” of Jafri’s late wife, Zakia Jafri, against those behind the massacre, saying her “lifelong legal battle for justice against the architects of the genocide inspired every secular mind in this country.”
He said that the legal battle waged by Zakia against the “masterminds” of the genocide was “long and unparalleled.”
She died at the age of 86 years “without getting justice,” Vijayan added in his post.