J-K govt moves SC seeking transfer of 7 Pak terrorists

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to respond to a contention by the Jammu and Kashmir government for transfer of seven Pakistani terrorists from Jammu to Tihar jail for they were “indoctrinating” local prisoners.

“The effect of such radicalisation is that the brainwashed local youth who are inmates of these prisoners, are spreading the menace of terrorism and creating sympathisers by influencing and mobilising against the state and winning over their local contacts on being released or during visitors meetings,” the state government said.

A bench of Justices L N Rao and M R Shah sought a response from the Centre and the Delhi government on the petition.

Jammu and Kashmir government's standing counsel Shoeb Alam said that the terrorists belonging to various organisations need to be shifted out of Jammu jail as they were involved in the indoctrination of local prisoners.

If not Tihar, they can be shifted to other high security prisons in Haryana and Punjab, he said.

To this, the bench said that it will hear the matter and asked Alam to ensure that a copy of the notice is served to the seven terrorists also.

A day after the Pulwama attack on February 14 in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred, the Jammu and Kashmir government had moved the apex court to shift a Lashkar-E-Toiba (LeT) terrorist, Zahid Farooq, out of Jammu jail.

Farooq was arrested by security forces while trying to cross the border security fence on May 19, 2016.

The state government had said that the intelligence inputs received indicated that militants belonging to terror outfits like Jaish-e-Muhammad and LeT are indoctrinating the minds of other inmates lodged in the prison.

The state also sought shifting of the trial to Delhi saying it apprehends that transporting the militant to court and back to prison poses a threat to escorting policemen and common public.