Last 2 years, India sent back 18 Pakistani, 8 Afghan nationals held for terror

Data on those arrested in J&K shows that nine Pakistani jihadists and eight Afghans were deported in 2015, while one Pakistani, Muhammad Hashim Khan, has been sent home this year so far.

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Khan was deported to Pakistan through the Wagah border in February. A resident of Zhob in Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province, he was arrested in August 2008, while allegedly crossing the Line of Control (LoC) with a Lashkar-e-Taiba unit.

WATCH VIDEO | Last 2 Years, India Sent Back 18 Pakistani, 8 Afghan Nationals Held For Terror

Even though prosecutors charged Khan with the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, a Kupwara court acquitted him because of procedural lapses in the way evidence was gathered. Khan was convicted last year on relatively minor immigration-related charges and sentenced to six months in prison.

“I have no comment to offer on these cases, other than to say the process of law has been followed,” said K Rajendra, DGP, J&K Police, told The Indian Express.

In 2015, data shows, several large groups of terrorists were sent back to their countries, including Abdul Hamid Khan,Muhammad Ayub Khan, Muhammad Hamza Khan, Abdul Khair, Baaz Muhammad, Khair-ud-Din Khan and Sohrab Khan, all held in 1997 in the forests above Trehgam. An eighth man died in prison while the group was serving life sentences.

The eight men, all from the ethnic-Pashtun enclave of Arakash in northern Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, were held with eight assault rifles, hand grenades and ammunition.

Intelligence sources said the men were among Afghan mercenaries recruited by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to strengthen the capabilities of Kashmiri jihadists. “The best-guess estimate we have is about half the people released have gone back to maintaining links with jihadist groups. Shahid Latif is just the most egregious example,” said a senior intelligence official.

The Pakistani jihadists released in 2015-2016, unlike the Afghans, served relatively short sentences, even though they were found in possession of weapons and explosives. Tanvir Ahmad Tanavali, a Karachi resident who allegedly fired on Indian troops while attempting to cross the LoC in November 2009, was the only one against whom prosecutors — unsuccessfully — levelled a charge of attempted murder.

Tanavali was convicted only for the possession of illegal arms and immigration offences, for which he received a six-year prison sentence, and a Rs 1,000 fine.

Fakhruzzaman Khokkar, a Gujaranwala resident held in Srinagar in September 2008, in possession of a Kalashnikov assault rifle, pistol and hand grenade, was sent home after serving four years in jail — set off against the years served during trial.

The longest prison term served by any Pakistani prisoner deported home in 2015-2016 was seven years, by Gujaranwala resident Mansoor Ahmad Manhas, arrested in March 2007. Ironically, Manhas was acquitted of all charges in 2013 by a Baramulla court, and the government decided not to appeal.

In many cases, prosecutions collapsed in a similar manner. Raja Kifyat Ali, held in June 2010, allegedly in possession of a bag full of ammunition, was acquitted by a trial court in Srinagar and repatriated home the next year.

Abdul Hai Malik, held for attempting to murder a civilian in Srinagar’s Maisuma area in 1996, remained in prison until his repatriation 2013 — but only received a two-year sentence for illegally entering India.

Ironically, individuals who the police said were not terrorists often ended up serving longer sentences than those charged with violent crimes. Muhammad Mehboob, a resident of Daryari village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’s Kotli district, spent six years in jail after his 2009 arrest, even though investigators said he had only come to visit relatives.

A Nigerian national held on passport-related charges, an Afghan refugee, 16 Pakistanis arrested for crossing the border to visit relatives on the Indian side of the Line of Control and 31 Bangladeshis arrested illegal economic migration were also deported during this period.

For the most part, terrorism-related prosecutions collapsed because police did not have access to forensic resources which could have helped them link weapons recovered from terrorists were used in particular crimes.

“There’s also a problem with the law. Take the case of Muhammad Hashim Khan, who we arrested just after he crossed the Line of Control. He’d clearly come to kill but he hadn’t done anything when we got him,” said a senior police officer.

The deportation policy was part of a set of secret confidence-building measures negotiated by the then prime minister A B Vajpayee and Pakistan’s then-military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf. It came on the back of a series of Supreme Court orders which, since 2003, forbade Indian governments from holding foreign prisoners after their prison terms ended.

Islamabad agreed to receive the prisoners, thus acknowledging that Pakistani nationals were involved in the jihad in J&K — something it had long denied. New Delhi, in turn, saw the releases as giving Gen Musharraf a means to strengthen his leverage with Islamist groups fighting India.