Judicial Apathy

Sir,
I have gone through the remarkable elucidation of Justice G D Sharma (Daily Excelsior, Feb 24, Untold story of Hafiz Saeed’s Meteoric rise) of how a judicial apathy in a very serious security issue finally resulted in the release of a dangerous terrorist who caused mayhem in later years. This should be an eye opener to modern jurists to realise how important it is to take speedy and determined action in matters of national security. However, there are some errors in the write up which need correction. The author means Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and not Hafiz Saeed. In fact it was Masood Azhar who was arrested in J&K and remained in Kot Balwal jail and was exchanged in Kandhar against a planeload of passengers. Hafiz Saeed was never arrested in India. By mistake the picture is also of Hafiz Saeed and not Masood Azhar. There is also another minor error. When he talks of Yusuf Shah Chak as the idol breaker of Kashmir, he really means Sultan Sikandar nicknamed Butshikan. Yusuf Shah Chak came much later in history. He was a kind of romantic who was defeated and arrested by Akbar’s forces and died in exile. However, these errors do no alter the basic focus of the author which makes a lot of sense in current scenario.
Prof. S K Shah
Channi Himmat, Jammu