Two officials in dock for aiding jailed terrorists

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 16

Two former jail superintendents have been indicted by a Jaipur court for allowing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists lodged in Punjab jails to contact their handlers in the country and Pakistan on the phone. The state government has ordered a probe.

On December 10, a court in Jaipur awarded life imprisonment to eight LeT terrorists, two of whom are lodged in Punjab jails. They were held guilty of criminal conspiracy, recruiting persons for terror activities and printing counterfeit notes. Among them Asgar Ali was lodged in a Bikaner jail, Shakkar Ulla in Nabha and Mohammad Iqbal in an Amritsar jail when they contacted their handlers in Pakistan and continued recruitment using phones from jails.

They were acting at the behest of Pakistan-based Lashkar commander Walid alias Vicky. The Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad had arrested these men in 2010, following inputs from central agencies, which had intercepted telephone conversations between them and the Lashkar commander.

In its order, the court slammed the jail officials for giving a “free hand” to the accused to use mobile phones and make contacts. The court asked the Home Departments of Rajasthan and Punjab to take action against the officials concerned.

“There were serious lapses on part of the jail superintendents and other officials posted in these jails as they allowed the terrorists to use mobiles phones to make contacts outside,” the court observed.

DGP (Prisons) IPS Sahota said: “We received the court orders two days ago and a probe has been marked to the IG (Prisons) to establish the role of jail officials, who were then posted as superintendents in the two jails.”

Sources said while jammers in these two jails were not working, the jail officials allowed mobile phones to be smuggled inside the jails. Whether money was exchanged and who all accepted the money to allow these terrorists use mobile phones was under scrutiny, they added.

IG (Prisons) Roop Kumar Arora said he had summoned the case file along with the record of the two jails to establish the role of the officials posted there. “We need to ascertain how the mobile phones reached inside jails and who were involved in it,” he said, adding that the nexus would be probed and the guilty punished.