NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre and Delhi government’s response on a plea by the Jammu and Kashmir government seeking transfer of seven Pakistani terrorists from Jammu jail to Tihar in the national capital, alleging they were “indoctrinating” local prisoners.
According to the plea, the seven terrorists are Waqas Manzoor alias Qazir, Mohd Abdullah alias Abu Tallah, Zaffar Iqbal, Zubair Talha Zarror alias Talha from Multan, Mohd Ali Hussain—all of all Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT)—Hafeez Ahmed Baloch of terrorist group Al Badr, arrested in 2006, and Zia Mustafa, accused of killing 24 Kashmiri Pandits at Nadimarg area of Shopian district in South Kashmir in 2003.
A bench of Justices L N Rao and M R Shah tagged the pleas along with an earlier petition filed by the state government for shifting of Pakistani terrorist Zahid Farooq, who was affiliated to LeT, and said it will hear the petitions together.J&K standing counsel Shoeb Alam said terrorists belonging to various organisations need to be shifted out of Jammu jail as they were involved in the indoctrination of local prisoners and posed a security threat to the people and security personnel.
A day after the Pulwama attack on February 14, the Jammu and Kashmir government had moved the apex court to shift Farooq out of Jammu jail. He was arrested while trying to cross the border security fence on May 19, 2016.
“Foreign prisoners like the private respondent are radicalising and brainwashing local Kashmiri youth in prison. There is a concentration of prisoners with similar backgrounds and linkages to terrorist organizations in local prisons in the State of J&K,” it said, adding that the effect of such radicalisation is that the brainwashed local youth create sympathisers for terrorists.
The plea
The Jammu and Kashmir government has pleaded that the Pakistani prisoners are radicalising Kashmiri youths in prison. These youths then create sympathisers for terrorists.