Hizbul Mujahideen chief’s son injured in Tihar jail scuffle

All the prisoners, including Syed Shahid Yusuf, were wounded when the personnel of the Tamil Nadu special force intervened after one of their physically handicapped officers was assaulted by three inmates at Tihar central jail

Left to right - Syed Shahid Yusuf, Sayeed Salahudeen (Image: PTI and AFP)

New Delhi: Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's son, who is lodged in Tihar jail in connection with terror-funding cases, was assaulted in a scuffle with security guards. As per the official report, there were 18 other prisoners who were injured. All the prisoners, including Syed Shahid Yusuf, were wounded when the personnel of the Tamil Nadu special force intervened after one of their physically handicapped officers was assaulted by three inmates at Tihar central jail. Tihar jail report says that three prisoners, including a Kashmiri, were found to be having unauthorised materials and when Tamil Nadu special force sub-inspector Muthu Pandee tried to remove them, the inmates resisted and assaulted him. These facts were revealed when a report was submitted by Tihar jail authorities to the Union Home Ministry. As per the report, a three-member team of doctors from the AIIMS is examining the injured prisoners. A fact-finding team has been constituted to investigate the entire incident. The team will be headed by a district judge rank officer Commandant of the Tamil Nadu special force battalion deployed in Tihar jail has also been asked to conduct a separate detailed probe into the incident. Appropriate actions will be taken against anyone found negligent.  The team of Tamil Nadu special force was removed from the active jail duties. Syed Salahuddin is the ‘supreme commander’ of Kashmiri militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The 71-year-old also heads Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. In June Syed Salahuddin was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of State. His son Syed Shahid Yusuf, 42, works in the state government as a village agriculture assistant. Yusuf was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a 2011 terror funding case.