Kolkata, Mar 11 (IANS): A Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist, who has been sentenced to death, went on a hunger strike at a correctional home close to Kolkata for two days demanding a television set be installed in his cell, a West Bengal minister said.
The terrorist, Muzaffar Ahmed Rather, who had also demanded that he be served "good food" and tried to create a ruckus, has now been transferred to the Presidency Correctional Home (jails in Bengal are called Correctional Homes).
"This militant was on hunger strike for two days at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home. His demand was that he be provided with a television set. But since he is in a condemned cell for being on death row, as per jail manual, he cannot be provided a television set.
"His demand for good food was only intended at creating unrest. We provide quality food to all jail inmates," state Correctional Administration Minister Abani Mohan Joardar told IANS over phone.
"As he was trying to cause disturbance, we have shifted him to Presidency Correctional Home. Now he is no more on hunger strike," Joardar said.
Ahmed, a resident of Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, was sentenced to death alongside two other LeT terrorists from Pakistan, by a West Bengal sub-divisional court on January 21 for plotting subversive strikes in Kashmir.
The three, alongside another Indian LeT operative, were caught at the Indo-Bangladesh border in Petrapole of North 24 Parganas district while trying to sneak into India in 2007.
However, one of the Indian ultra fled while being taken to Mumbai for investigation.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge of Bangaon sub-divisional fast track court-1 Binoy Kumar Pathak pronounced them guilty under sections 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the government of India) and 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable under Section 121).
Ahmed is from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.
The four terrorists had gone to Dhaka and hatched a conspiracy to cause destructions in India.
They were arrested in April 2007, by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and handed over to the Criminal Investigaiton Department of the West Bengal Police.