Families have alleged that the seven accused are being abused and kept deliberately confined to a single jail cell.
Kapurthala Jail in Jalandhar. Photo: Author provided.
by- Irfan Amin Malik and Kusum Arora
Pulwama, Jalandhar: The families of seven Kashmiri students arrested in connection with the 2018 Maqsudan police station grenade attack case have expressed fear for the safety of their jailed sons.
Languishing in Kapurthala jail in Jalandhar, Punjab, for the last two years, the jailed youths were arrested after a blast took place on Maqsudan police station on September 14, 2018. In October 2019, a chargesheet was also produced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The Modern Kapurthala Jail is situated in a vast area at Theh Kanjla village in Kapurthala district. The jail was inaugurated in 2011 to decongest the overcrowded, dilapidated and old Jalandhar Central Jail, which was then shifted to Kapurthala.
The families of Kashmiri prisoners said that for the first time since 2019 their sons are being subjected to ill-treatment at the Kapurthala jail in Jalandhar.
They alleged that their sons are being maltreated, abused and kept deliberately with the gangsters, making their lives vulnerable.
Amir Nazir Mir
“Few days back I received a call from my son who was in deep distress. The harsh environment imposed by jail authorities has triggered fear in him. I am deeply worried about my son,” Hafeeza, mother of Amir Nazir Mir, told The Wire.
Hafeeza, mother of Amir Nazir Mir in Dardsara, Awantipora. Photo: Author provided
The 45-year-old added that she has not seen her son for the past one year. “I have gone twice to meet him in jail, but for the past one year I did not go. When I see him there I miss him more, which is why I also rarely talk to him on the phone.”
Amir’s cousin sister Humaira Rashid said that a few days ago she got a chance to speak to Amir but his condition was not fine.
“My brother Amir was looking unwell and distressed due to the harsh conditions imposed by the jail authorities. He and other inmates had observed a hunger strike against the ill-treatment and the strike had also affected their health. Their blood sugar levels had gone down due to which they had fallen sick,” Humaira, while recalling her last conversation with Amir, told The Wire.
The family demanded that Amir and other inmates be treated well. “My son briefly narrated the ordeal he and other inmates had gone through. Amir and others are kept confined inside the cells and are not allowed to go out to meet other inmates. He was also complaining about the poor and undercooked food given to them,” narrated Hafeeza.
Police had named 21-year-old Amir Nazir, a resident of Dardsara, Awantipora, as the key accused in the grenade attack on Maqsudan police station in Jalandhar. Later, NIA also claimed that Amir had been associated with Pakistan-based militants, including Zakir Musa.
The family, however, refuted the allegations and said that their son was framed without any evidence against him.
On February 27, 2019, Amir, a class 12 student at a government higher secondary school in Dardsara was arrested by police and later lodged in Kapurthala jail in Jalandhar. “Amir was studying well and before he was arrested he never had any FIR or police case against him.”
Suhail
Only two kilometres away from Amir’s village is Noorpora where Misra, a widow, narrated her ordeal. “I lost my husband Ghulam Mohammad Bhat some 13 years ago and since then I braved all odds, including poverty, to give education to my children. Two years ago my son Suhail, an engineering student, was arrested from his home, shattering my dreams.”
Bhat is accused in another case of the “Jalandhar terror module”. In October 2019, police had claimed to have busted the terror module by arresting four Kashmiri students including Suhail.
On October 10, 2019 Bhat was picked up from his residence and is now languishing in Kapurthala jail.
“I somehow managed enough money to give good education to Suhail. Without having any resources I am now selling milk, paddy and other stuff to pay the amount to Suhail so that he can pay jail mess charges,” said Misra and broke down.
She added that she came to know from her daughters about the ill-treatment Suhail and other prisoners are receiving. “I do not speak to my son on the phone because every time he speaks to me we both end up crying and the limited phone call becomes useless. My two daughters actually told me that Suhail was not good as he was complaining about the harsh treatment meted out to the prisoners inside the jail.”
She claimed that her son is innocent and the charges against him are baseless. “He was here in Kashmir when the police arrested him for his alleged involvement in the Jalandhar terror module. I vividly remember that my son could not join the college in Chandigarh as I could not arrange money to pay for his semester fees. He was deliberately at home and I was in search of money to pay for his college fees. In the meantime, police came and arrested him from the house. When he was picked up I shouted and cried and since then my life has become hell,” 50-year-old Misra told The Wire.
Yasir Rafiq Bhat
In the same Noorpora village, father of engineering student Yasir Rafiq Bhat claimed that his son was arrested only because he was the cousin brother of slain Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH) militant chief Zakir Musa.
“There is no proof that my son was involved in any crime and I can vouch for it. He was picked up and jailed because he was the paternal cousin brother of Zakir Musa,” Yasir’s father Rafiq Ahmad Bhat, a shopkeeper, told The Wire.
Apart from Yasir, other accused prisoners are Shahid Qayoom, son of Abdul Qayoom of Noorpora Awantipora; Fazil Bashir, son of Bashir Ahmad of Awantipora; Zahid Gulzar, son of Gulzar Ahmad of Rajpora Awantipora and Mohammad Idrees Shah, son of Abdul Qayoom Shah of Buhu Awantipora.In 2019, NIA filed a chargesheet mentioning that four out of seven accused had allegedly targeted Maqsudan police station in Jalandhar under a conspiracy by AGH militant chief Zakir Musa to target security installations in the country. All the accused, as per NIA, were cadres of Zakir Musa-led AGH militant outfit.
The Maqsudan police station blast had injured two policemen.
Talking to The Wire, superintendent of police, Modern Jail Kapurthala district, Baljit Singh Ghuman denied the allegations of harassment and said, “I met the accused and they were fine. As far as their hunger strike and demand of keeping them separate from gangsters in the jail is concerned, it’s being done on the orders of the DGP Punjab. They will be kept in the same cell, where they were lodged earlier.”
When this reporter mentioned that the families of the accused have also alleged that the jail authorities were not providing proper medical facilities to the accused, Ghuman said that the doctors were checking them daily. “Besides, I also met the boys on April 12, Monday and they were fine. There is no such issue,” he added.
However, contrary to this, Jalandhar-based leading lawyers and defence counsels – K.S. Hundal and his wife Taranjit Kaur Hundal, who are representing the accused in the NIA court, Mohali, said, “It is true that the boys are being tortured and harassed by the jail authorities. We brought this matter to the notice of the court earlier too, after which the court ‘orally’ directed the jail authorities to treat the boys in a better way.”
On the issue of hunger strike by the accused Kashmiri students, Hundal said that the boys were being harassed and kept in cells. “They were kept in isolation in separate cells and were not allowed to meet other jail inmates. Following this, they went on a hunger strike and to break their strike, they were admitted to the hospital,” he added.
Lawyers K.S. Hundal and Taranjit Kaur Hundal, the defence counsels in the case at their residence in Jalandhar. Photo: Author provided.
K.S. Hundal, who is assisted by his wife Taranjit Kaur Hundal in this case, said the hearing in this case is going at a very slow pace. “It has been over two and half years since the case started but the NIA is not bringing prosecution witnesses. So far, no ‘material witness’ has been brought. But, despite all this, we are trying to get the bail of the accused,” they added.
It is pertinent to mention here that an FIR no. 163 under section 307 (attempt to murder), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 427 (mischief causing damage) IPC and section 3,4,5 of Explosive Substances Act 1908 was registered against ‘unnamed’ persons by the Jalandhar police commissionerate on September 15, 2018 at police division number 1 – a day after the blast took place.
Later on, sections 153, 153A, 153B of IPC and section 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 were added by the NIA.
source ;thewire
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