The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking to transfer seven alleged Pakistani terrorists from Jammu jail to Tihar in New Delhi because they were allegedly indoctrinating local prisoners.
A bench of Justices L.N. Rao and M.R. Shah sought a response from the Centre and the Delhi government on the plea.
The Jammu and Kashmir government's standing counsel Shoeb Alam said the terrorists, belonging to various outfits, needed to be shifted out of Jammu jail and if not in Tihar, they can be shifted to other high-security prisons in Haryana and Punjab.
The bench said 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 killed, the Jammu and Kashmir government had moved the apex court to shift a Lashkar-E-Taiba terrorist Zahid Farooq out of Jammu jail.
Farooq was arrested by security forces while trying to cross the border fence on May 19, 2016.
The state government had said intelligence inputs had hinted that militants belonging to Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba were indoctrinating other inmates in the prison. The government said it had reliably learnt that the prisoner and other individuals had considerable local support and it cannot be ruled out that they may be receiving information, resources as well as other help to carry out terrorist related activities.
Alam cited an example of an attack on a police party last year when policemen were killed and a Pakistani terrorist prisoner was freed from custody while on a hospital visit. Farooq's transfer from his current prison in Jammu and Kashmir to a high-security prison outside the state is in the interest of national security, the government said. '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 organisations in local prisons in the State of J&K,' it said.
