Cellphones recovered from Kashmir prison

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Srinagar, April 17 : At least seven mobile phones and 15 SIM cards were recovered from Srinagar's Central Jail Sunday, a day after police claimed that a former militant lodged in the tightly-secured prison had hatched the murder conspiracy of moderate Muslim leader Maulana Showkat Shah.
Informed sources said some detainees in the jail, which houses many convicted militants, were being questioned after police made the recoveries during searches in various barracks.
The sources said that a special police team was accompanied by a magistrate to conduct searches in the jail. The team was led by Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) S.M. Sahai.
Police Saturday said they have arrested three people for the murder of Shah as the conspiracy to kill him was hatched in the jail.
The cleric was killed in a bomb blast as he was entering a mosque here April 8.
Sahai said the three arrested and a militant leader in Pakistan had discussed the broad contours of the plan with Ashiq Hussain Faktoo alias Qasim, husband of Asiya Andrabi - head of radical women's outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat. Faktoo is currently lodged in central jail and the plan was discussed during a visit paid by one of the arrested.
The maulana was the cleric of the Jamiat-e-Ahlihadith - a highly puritanical group of Muslims closer to the Wahabi school of thought in Saudi Arabia, which has gained a large following in the Kashmir Valley in recent years.
He had fiercely opposed last year's stone throwing youngsters during the summer riots in the Kashmir Valley, which led the radicals to dub him as an 'Indian agent'.