Unjustly jailed in India, Mohammed Ali Bhat’s ordeal highlights plight of Kashmiris

Bhat spent 23 years in prison after being falsely accused of terrorism – one of thousands from the region rights groups say have been jailed on suspicion and fabricated evidence

Released in 2019 to discover that both his parents had died, he is still adjusting to his new reality and relearning how to live in society

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Mohammed Ali Bhat hugs a relative after his release from prison in 2019. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:00pm, 22 Aug 2020Updated: 7:27pm, 22 Aug 2020

Mohammed Ali Bhat spent more than two decades in jail for a crime he did not commit. On June 12, 1996, the Kashmiri Muslim carpet seller was arrested in Nepal. He was later brought to New Delhi, where – along with two other Kashmiri businessmen – he was charged with being involved in bomb blasts that had killed 27 people in the states of Delhi and Rajasthan the previous month. Prosecutors said Bhat and the others had provided arms and logistics support to the bombers.

Bhat claims he was tortured, interrogated and forced to sign blank documents “which were as thick as a 200-page book”. Then, after a trial that lasted eight years, he was given a death sentence.

“As far as I can comprehend, the police couldn’t find the real culprits and there was intense pressure from the government because they had to answer to the public,” Bhat said. “The police said ‘We have caught the culprits’, and they got promoted.”

A stack of letters Mohammed Ali Bhat exchanged with his father and other relatives and friends while he was in jail. Photo: Handout

In 2012, the Delhi High Court acquitted him and another man after finding the police had not maintained correct protocols in their investigation. But Bhat still languished in jail, as the Rajasthan High Court had yet to clear his charges over the bombing in that state. His appeals for bail were repeatedly denied.

“Life in jail was full of physical and mental torture,” Bhat said. The inmates would beat and harass him because he was Kashmiri, and also a Muslim, and “they would get support from the jail authorities for doing that”. He said that by beating him, the inmates “felt they were doing a service to their nation”.