By Bunty Mahajan
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday seized 15 mobile phones and almost an equal number of SIM cards from inside the high security Kot Bhalwal jail which houses dreaded Kashmiri and Pakistani terrorists.
The seizure came during a surprise raid in the jail situated on the outskirts of Jammu city during wee hours of Thursday.
Pointing out that the seizures were made from general area in different barracks, sources said the searches were carried out simultaneously at all the barracks around 2 am when jail inmates were asleep and they could find little time to hide them. The other items seized from there included pen drives, head phones, chargers etc.
Sources said that nearly 200 personnel from Jammu and Kashmir Police, CID, CIK and CRPF carried out the searches, with Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Singh himself monitoring the operation. Searches continued till afternoon.
A senior police officer described the seizure of mobile phones inside the high security jail as serious breach of security as a large number of local and Pakistani terrorists, apart from their over ground workers and dreaded criminals have been lodged there. Investigations are in progress to find out as to who have been using the mobile phones, he added.
Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar too had been lodged in this jail until his release in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814 to Kandhar in December 1999.
It is not first time that mobile phones and other electronic gadgets have been recovered from inside the high security jail.
In April last year, police had seized three mobile phones and two SIM cards among others things from a Pakistani militant lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail. Identified as Abdul Rehman Mughal, the other items seized from him included a charger, a head phone and a memory card.
The seizure followed searches carried out inside the jail within hours on the basis of disclosures of an over ground worker Muzaffar Beigh of Handwara who, following his apprehension along with nearly half a dozen SIM cards and other incriminating material by the police in R S Pura, revealed that the seized SIM cards were meant for supply to some militants lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail. Owing allegiance to Jaish-e-Mohammad, he had also confessed having supplied SIM cards and mobile phones to some jailed militants there.
In January 2019, police had seized mobile phones, pen drives, sharp edged weapons, LPG cylinders and even Deep Freezers among various other incriminating items from barracks housing Kashmiri and Pakistani militants inside the jail premises. The militants had virtually converted some of the barracks into a mess by having LPG cylinders, stoves, deep freezers, electric heaters and other cooking material.
In 1999, nearly a dozen Pakistani militants had dug 100 ft underground tunnel from their barrack to make good their escape, but they were caught by jail officials when they were hardly four or five feet away from freedom.
