Shifting of terror-accused poses security threat

KOCHI: The Prison Department’s decision to shift 16 terrorists awaiting trial to the Ernakulam sub-jail does not seem to be wise, since it faces the problem of poor security. The shortest jail compound wall does not make it an appropriate place to accommodate terrorists who are well-trained to breach security.“Dearth of basic facilities, including wireless sets, has also raised serious concerns. We are using one land phone connection and personal mobile phones for communicating with other stations. If there is any untoward incident such as disconnection of the land phones, then the cops will become helpless. They won’t even be able to contact the adjacent police stations,” a jail official said.Shortage of wardens is another issue.“The current warden strength of the sub-jail is just eight. The number seems inadequate to control all these high-profile inmates, a jail official said. “At night, the entire prison has to be managed with four wardens on shift basis. The wardens do not have proper training. The sub-jail has 12 cells and we are planning to lodge these 16 accused in four or five cells which have maximum security,” the official said.The terror accused who are currently accommodated in the Thiruvananthapuram Central Jail and Kakkanad Jail for trial in NIA Court will be shifted to the Ernakulam sub-jail on Monday.The 11 accused in the Kashmir Recruitment case, including Thadiyantavida Nazeer, Shafaz and Ummar Farooq, are also involved in the Bangalore bomb blast case. Sainuddin alias Sattar Bhai, accused in the Gujarat bomb blast case, and four others will be lodged here.Jail ADGP Alexander Jacob had given directions to Ernakulam sub-jail Superintendent Raju to shift the inmates of the sub-jail to the Kakkanad district jail, Mattanchery and Aluva sub-jails.The ADGP gave the direction to shift 70-odd inmates so as to admit terror accused till the trial on the Kashmir recruitment case was over. Fifteen prisoners each will be sent to Mattanchery and Aluva sub-jails. The remaining prisoners will be sent to Kakkanad.