The Hindu : National : Court acquits 10 ‘ISI agents’

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Court acquits 10 ‘ISI agents’

Sushanta Talukdar

They were accused of being ISI agents
“There is no material to prosecute them”

Guwahati: Ten persons, who were arrested by the Assam Police on charge of being agents of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and detained in jails for nine years, were acquitted by the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Kamrup (Metropolitan), here on Friday.

Defence lawyer Nekibur Zaman told The Hindu that District and Sessions Judge Chayarani Goswami acquitted all the 10 accused persons, including a Pakistan and a Bangladesh national, as there was no material to prosecute them on charges framed against them.

The court sentenced the Pakistan national Fasiullah and the Bangladesh national Bilal Mian to five years’ imprisonment under Section 14 of the Foreigner’s Act for entering India without valid documents. However, as they had already spent nine years in jail, the court ordered their release, advocate Zaman said.

It was on August 7, 1999 that the Assam Police arrested four of these 10 persons — Fasiullah, Javed Wakar, Kari Salim and Maulana Akram — from the city and accused them of being ISI agents.

Later, the Special Operation Unit of Assam Police brought Bilal Mian, who was arrested by the West Bengal police and showed him as arrested in the case. All the accused were shown to be involved in a case relating to recovering of explosives at Siliguri. The police claimed that the explosives were despatched from Bangladesh.

Later five more persons, Haji Bilaluddin and Manikut Chodhury, Jakir Hussain of Goalpara and Kaifatullah of the city and Jehirul Hussain of Howly in Barpeta district were arrested in connection with the case.

In statement laid on the floor of the Assam Assembly on April 6, 2000, the then Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had informed that House that the Assam Police arrested Md. Fasih Ullah Hussaini, resident of Hyderabad Sind, Pakistan; Md. Javed Wakhar a resident of Karachi; Maulana Hafiz Md. Akram Mallick of Kupwara in J&K; and Qari Salim Ahmed of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.

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