Indian Supreme Court directs state Govts to file Latest Status Report on POK prisoners under J&K Gov

Ocotober 06 (Vijay Kumar) -Supreme Court of India on Friday directed the Union of India and Govt. of J&K to file Status Report on the detenus detained in various jails of India under orders of Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir. The Supreme Court Bench comprising JJ Mr. Tarun Chatterjee and R.M. Lodha expressed serious concern on the failure of the State and Central Governments to implement the orders of the Supreme Court regarding the trial of 25 prisoners who were ordered by the Supreme Court on 10

th November, 2008 to be tried within one year. The Govt. of J&K failed to inform the Supreme Court on the status of their trials in the respective courts. This order was passed by the Supreme Court on a writ of habeas corpus filed by Prof. Bhim Singh, Chairman, J&K National Panthers Party and Executive Chairman, State Legal Aid Committee. The petition was filed in 2005 for the release of about 102 detenus. All the detenus were arrested under Public Safety Act.

In a statement Prof. Bhim Singh while arguing the case made a strong plea that the detenus from Pakistan, POK, Afghanistan and some from Lebanon, Turkistan etc. who came with guns to Jammu and Kashmir with the aid and support of ISI of Pakistan were detained. He said that most of them had exhausted their sentence period if they were tried and sentenced. His case is that no detenu can be kept in jail under J&K Public Safety Act for more than two years. He urged the court to quash their detention orders and let the State put them on trial. He said that it was because of the appeal from J&K Government that these detenus should be tried outside the state as state was not capable to take care of the security matters during their trial in Kashmir. It was on this request by the J&K Government that the Supreme Court had directed for their trial in the Districts they were lodged in jails.

The Government said that the petition has mentioned 98 prisoners out of which 27 have been recommended for the deportation by the Govt. of J&K. The Government said that 12 detenus have been deported, four detenus namely, Shakhawat Hussain Shah, Meharban Sathi, Faiz Ali and Talib Hussain have been given Consular Access and their travel documents have also been received. Prof. Bhim Singh submitted that there is no confirmation about their deportation. Similarly, four other detenus namely, Shahzad Gul, Mohd. Sharief Haidari, Mohd. Farooq Janbaz and Khursheed Ahmed Mughal have been given Consular Access. However, the confirmations of their nationality and travel documents have not been received. Prof. Bhim Singh said that there is no confirmation of the deportation of these detenus and other seven detenus who were to be deported as per assurance of the government. The other seven included, Mohd. Ramzan Ansari, Amjad Ali Jat, Mohd. Ajmal Chouhan, Liaqat Ali, Farooq Ahmed Khan, Fazal Din and Majid Khan who were stated to have been recommended for deportation are not available with the Foreigners Division.

The Supreme Court directed the State and Central governments to inform the court if its direction on the status of the case of Mr. SonaullahRanjay, s/o Ishaq Hussain, Murtaza Aquib, s/o Mohd. Mustafa, Mohd. Nawaz, s/o Rehmat Ali, Shahzad Gull, s/o Lt. Rana Mohd. Ibrahim, Shahid Latief, s/o Ab. Latief, who have been lodged in Varanasi Central Jail, Sher Khan, s/o Abdul Qayoom, Shahid Jan, s/o Bismillah Jan, Fazal Din, s/o Mohd. Sarwar, Mohd. Farooq Janbaz, s/o Mohd. Yaqoob on their deportation have been implemented.

The Supreme Court further directed the State and Central governments to inform about the status of other three detenus who were undergoing sentence in various jails. They are Mohd. Tariq Gujjar, s/o Mohd. Aslam Gujjar, r/o Khedowali, Sarfaraz Ali Rajput, s/o Mukthar Ali, r/o Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Wali Mohd., s/o Mohd. Ibrahim, r/o Lee Market Daryabad, Karachi, Pakistan.

The court directed to list the case after four weeks.

The 25 prisoners in various jails included,

1.Hamid Numain Bhat S/o Mohd. Iqbal Bhat, 2.Mohd. Abdullah code Abu Talaha, S/o Hassan Bakshi, 3.Shahnawaz Malik @Fouji S/o Kamadar Malik, 4.Mohd. Yousuf Khaja, S/o Mohd.Ayoub, 5.Buland Khan, S/o Atta Khan, 6.Dilawar Sain, S/o Hassan Sain, 7.Mohd. Suhail @Aamir, S/o Mohd. Anwar, 8. Waseem Ahmed @Abu Mohammad, S/o Mohammad Hussain, 9.Mohd. Imran Khan code Iqbal, S/o Mohd. Muzaffar, 10.Qamar Ayoub, s/o Mohd. Ayoub, 11.Zulfikar ali Rama @Abu Jhan Mohd. Yasim, 12. Ghulam Abbas @Jassar @Hamza, S/o Manzoor Hussain, 13.Syed Sajad Ali, Bukhari, S/o Syed Shahpal, 14.Assadullah Qadri S/o Syed Ullah, 15.Rahil Ahmed Hashmi, S/o Mushtaz Ahmed, 16.Zaffarul Haq Jamali, S/o Habib-ul-Rehman, 17. Mohd.Mubasir code Ali Badar, S/o Mohd. Tahir, 18.Akram Asif S/o Mohd. Asif, 19. Mohd. Hamza Khan, S/o Thok Mohd, 20.Khairdin Khan, S/o Haji Salam Khan, 21.Taza Sarbaz, S/o Mirza Ahmed, 22. Abdul Gair, S/o Abdul Gani, 23.Baaz Mohmad S/o Mohd. Azim, 24.Ab. Hamid Khan, S/o Mohd.Rahim Khan, 25.Mohd.Ayoub Khan, S/o Ab. Qadir Khan.

Prof. Bhim Singh was assisted by Advocates included M/s. B.S. Billowria, P.V. Yogeswaran, Mrs. Ritu Puri and Vijay Pratap Singh.

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