Government shouldn't take chance in moving Bhullar to Punjab jail: MS Bitta

CHANDIGARH: Criticising Punjab government's reported move to shift 1993 Delhi bomb blast convict Bhullar to Amritsar jail, Chairman of All India Anti-terrorist Front M S Bitta today said that he feels defeated by the country's "political terrorism".

He also appealed the state and the Centre to not take any chance in shifting people like Bhullar to Punjab where many of his sympathisers and hardliners exist.

Former president of the Indian Youth Congress Bitta said, "I survived 14 terror attacks and even faced the bullets bravely, but today I feel defeated by political terrorism which exists in our system."

"Now, there are reports that Bhullar is being shifted from Tihar jail to jail in Amritsar, a border town which is close to international border with Pakistan. If this is done, it will not be a wise step.

"Last year, the Delhi government had pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute death sentence of terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment on the ground of his mental illness," he said.

The Congress leader also cited example of a sensational escape made by Babbar Khalsa militant Jagtar Singh Hawara, who was convicted for life in assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, from the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh over a decade back by digging a tunnel.

"Governments should not take any chance in shifting people like Bhullar, that too to a place like Amritsar, where many hardliners and their sympathisers exist," he said.

"First the government undertakes the risk of shifting prisoners like Bhullar and then one fine day he may makes sensational escape and once again the entire machinery will spend crores of rupees and work overtime, like in Hawara's case, to catch him," he said.

Bitta said that there are other instances in which other governments have sought premature release of hardcore prisoners following some kind of an appeasement policy.