This terrorist wants to be an IAS officer

A Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist, who is facing trial in several high-profile cases wants to sit for the civil services exams. A local court directed the superintendent of Central Jail in Srinagar to facilitate the 'applicant' Shabir Ahmad Bukhari in submitting his form.

"You are hereby directed to facilitate the applicant/accused Shabir Ahmad Bukari to submit his form for civil services in accordance with the jail manual," Srinagar district judge Sanjeev Gupta said in an order to the central jail authorities last week.

Bukhari, a resident of Kreeri village in north Kashmir's Baramulla district and a law graduate, had applied twice for the state civil services earlier. He once cleared the preliminary exams but could not sit for the mains as he reached the examination centre late due to non-availability of an escort party.

Bukhari was arrested in 2006 and has six cases of militancy filed against him including plotting to kill former minister of state for education Ghulam Nabi Lone. He is also facing trial on charges of planning a suicide attack in Srinagar during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the Valley in 2004.