Ahmedabad/Mumbai/New Delhi, Sep 8 - Her family recalled her patriotism, the Gujarat government insisted she was a terrorist and political parties called for Chief Minister Narendra Modi's resignation. The death of Mumbai collegian Ishrat Jahan five years ago continued to polarise Tuesday, a day after a court report said she was killed in a 'fake encounter'.

Undeterred by the report of Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate S.P. Tamang that 19-year-old Ishrat and her three friends were gunned down in cold blood by Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch (Detection) on June 5, 2004 in a 'fake encounter', the Gujarat government insisted they were terrorists.

According to the 240-page report, the four -- Ishrat Jahan, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani -- were not linked to any terror group.

State government spokesperson and cabinet minister Jay Narayan Vyas told reporters that the inquiry report was 'bad in law and so the state government will challenge it'.

Backing what the police had said at the time, the government also maintained that the four were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives who had been tasked to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and organise terror attacks in India.

The Gujarat government spokesperson said magistrate Tamang's inquiry was bad in law for two reasons.

'One, the process of natural justice demands that the accused should be given an opportunity to reply but no such opportunity was given. Secondly, since the high court had constituted a team and gave time to it till November, it was not fair that any other judicial officer also inquired into the case,' Vyas said.

He sought to cite an affidavit of the union ministry of home affairs filed in the Supreme Court to insist that the four had links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Reading out from the affidavit, Vyas said a mouthpiece of LeT, Ghazwa Times, had said soon after the encounter that Ishrat Jahan was an activist of the terror outfit.

While the Gujarat remained adamant in its stance, Ishrat's family, still coming to terms with the enormity of the death and the fact that she had been branded a terrorist, spoke out to demand the sternest punishment possible for the guilty policemen.