Date:24/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/24/stories/2003042404711100.htm

National

SC directive to J&K Govt. on 3 Pak. prisoners

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI April 23. The Supreme Court today directed the Jammu and Kashmir Government to furnish within a week details about three Pakistan nationals languishing various prisons in the State for the last nine years.

The direction was given by a Bench comprising Justice M.B. Shah and Justice Arun Kumar on habeas corpus petitions filed by the three Pakistanis — Bisarat Ali Rajput, Abdul Khaliq and M. Salahuddin — seeking their release from the jails there on the ground that they had been detained arbitrarily for no reason.

Counsel for the State Government submitted that the three Pakistanis had been arrested while attempting to cross the Line of Control in 1994-95 and were charged under various provisions of TADA and the J & K Public Safety Act. The Union Government had approached the Pakistan Government to take them back but it refused to do so. Hence, they had to be detained till the cases against them were disposed of. The Bench while asking the State Government to furnish details about the prisons where the detenus were lodged said that if an application was filed, the jail authorities would permit counsel for the petitioners to have their interview.