Srinagar, Oct 15: After visiting different Jammu jails, a team of the High Court Bar Association has said that inmates in different jails were not allowed to offer congregational prayers.
The main grievance so projected by the intimates to the committee of the Bar Association at Udhampur jail was that the superintendent did not allow them to offer Nimaz Ba-Jamaat. They were being compelled to raise Jai Mata Di, Vande matarum, Bharat Mata ki Ji etc slogans, said Bar spokesperson in a statement here.
Any intimate who doesnt follow his instructions is punished severely. The Quran of every intimate and the Jainimaz has been removed and they are made to offer Nimaz on blankets which are not clean, the Bar team comprising Aijaz Bedar vice-president, Muhammad Ashraf Bhat general secretary, Shabir Ahmad Butt, joint secretary, Arshad Andrabi and Rafiq Ahmad Joo, members, said.
The team constituted by the Bar Association visited the Central jail Udhampur after obtaining permission from the High Court on 01.10.2012 in Writ petition titled J&K High Court Bar Association Srinagar versus State of J&K and others in CMP No. 2145/12 of OWP bearing No. 767/06.
The Bar Association team, according to the spokesperson, met the Udhampur Jail inmates, including Masrat Alam and Mushtaq-ul-Islam in presence of the superintendent, Dr Vinod Kumar, and also the intimates at Kotebalwal jail in presence of the superintendent. Lastly, they met the inmates at Hira Nagar Sub-Jail in presence of superintendent.
The Bar Association will be releasing a complete report after few days, he added.
The intimates booked under the PSA are compelled to share barracks with accused persons/ convicts facing trial under heinous offences, the team said.
When the superintendent jail before whom these allegations were narrated by the intimated, he replied that the Quran and Jainimaz were removed from the possession of each intimate by the orders of the District Judge and SSP Udhampur. Even intimates who are not medically fit are being made to go for daily drill particularly intimates who are booked under the PSA
Mushtaq-ul-Islam narrated that on 15.09.2012 the Superintendent jail came to his barrack and asked him to come from his barrack for drill he refused to come out by saying that he as a Muslim is made to adhere to some practice which is against his faith of Islam. On this he was beaten severely by the Superintendent and also by the CRP personnel who were called-in for the said purpose by the Superintendent. He sustained head injuries and was profusely bleeding for which he was given inadequate treatment. The scars were still visible on his head and he looked like a broken man, the statement added.
He was put in solitary confinement in a cell for 21 days. The cell was having a commode but there was no door or curtain in front. There were two blankets one earthen pot and while going to attend call of nature everybody looked at him and he felt humiliated. Mushaq-ul-Islam narrated this infront of Superintendent who denied the allegations but could not explain freshness of the injuries on the body of the intimate Mushtaq-ul-Islam
The intimates of Kotebalwal and Hiranagar jail told the committee that the medical facilities should be upgraded and they should be produced before the courts where their cases are pending regularly, the Bar said.
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