SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir governments faced with a piquant problem, it is short of jails to accommodate the prisoners whose number is swelling every day.
The 12 jails and sub jails which existed here earlier were overcrowded soon after militancy began in the Valley over three years ago. To cope with the influx, the government converted the joint interrogation centered across the state into sub jails, the number of detention centers was thus doubled, yet the problem remained.
For over a year now, each jail and sub jail has twice as many inmates than it can handle. The Kot Balwal sub jail in Jammu, for instance, has 1,200 prisoners against a sanctioned capacity of 600. According to Reponses, the sub jail to recently turn away 90 new prisoners for wants of space.
Several hundred prisoners have been lodged in jail outside the state, but a highly placed officer said: “Other states are not ready to accept our burden beyond a limit.”
There is no proposal to construct new sprawling jails in the state which requires the acquisition of land and huge amounts of money. The state is already facing bankruptcy, thanks to the phenomenal increase in the expenditure on law and order. Whether the shortage of jails has weighed with the authorities while ordering the release of prisoners particularly on occasions such as Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanu, is a matter of guesswork, however, there has been no letup in the drive to detain more suspects.
Some observers see a link between the shortage of prisons and the recent spate of fake encounters.
The overcrowding has affected the management of jails in more ways than one. An officer pointed out that segregation of corrigible and incorrigible prisoners has become impossible.
The detainees are also deprived of basic facilities like water and medicine. According to an inmate of Kot Balwal, each barrack has a water tank which is adequate for 20 people, while 60 prisoners now occupy each building.
The situation in Jammu is much: worse, There the inmates are allegedly treated with contempt by the medical staff, There have been: allegations that prisoners are given antacid tablets for every ailment.
Trouble was reportedly sparked off when some security personnel misbehaved with women relatives who had come to visit some militants. There have been several such incidents over the past three years.
Of course the attitude of the jail authorities can influence prisoners, an inspector at Kot Balwal, Thakur Onkar Singh, used to buy medicines with his own money for the prisoners. And, as a militant leader said: “If Mr. Singh walks through Lal Chowk in Snnagar, the boys (militants) will salute him.” The posting of Kashmiri migrants, in sub jails has played havoc with the communal scene in the Valley; every militant who is released speaks of torture by his interrogators. So it is not surprising that militants released after years of detention take up use gun again with a vengeance.
A security officer poses an interesting question. He asks: “We blame Pakistan for inciting the militants. But they operate from across the border, without physical contact with the Kashmiri
Youth. How do we explain our failure to change a young man who has been in our custody for two years.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 16, 1993
