Two undertrials, alleged to be terrorists of Pakistani origin and sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore for diagnosis last week, will soon return to the Mysore prison after doctors certified that they had no serious illness.

Fahad alias Mohammed Koya and Mohammed Ali Hussain, both 24-years-old, were referred to the psychiatrists at Nimhans by doctors of a Mysore hospital where they were taken after they went on a hunger strike in the third week of November. They were demanding special privileges like telephone access to relatives in Pakistan and greater freedom to interact with each other in the jail, prison officials said.

The Government-run K R Hospital where the duo were taken on November 24, after they refused to eat for three days and subsequently fell ill, referred Fahad and Ali Hussain to Nimhans after they complained of sleeplessness and depression.

“Doctors at Nimhans have certified after examining both of them that there is no serious problem. They have, however, suggested keeping them under observation. One of them has been diagnosed with a urinary infection. They don’t need to be in hospital and they have started eating normally. They will be shifted back to Mysore,” chief superintendent of the Bangalore Central Prison E S Raja said.

Fahad and Ali Hussain had asked prison officials to provide them with phone cards to enable them to speak to relatives in Pakistan, following the imposition of Emergency in that country.

“Certain classes of prisoners are not entitled to some privileges like access to telephone. Those arrested on charges of terrorist activities are one of them. There is no way we can relax these rules, hence we refused permission,” Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) S T Ramesh said. Fahad and Ali Hussain were officially arrested on October 27, 2006 from a house on the outskirts of Mysore.