15 August 2004	Sunday	28 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

SRINAGAR, Aug 14: Indian authorities in Kashmir said on Saturday that prisoners were being provided regular medical check-ups after separatists charged that inmates in the insurgency-torn territory were being mistreated.

A government spokesman said doctors were regularly available at three main prisons - one in the summer capital Srinagar and two in the winter capital Jammu - and that ailing inmates were shifted to hospitals if needed.

"These doctors are providing round-the-clock medical facilities to the jail inmates," the spokesman said, adding that in Kashmir's 10 smaller prisons regular treatment was made available by part-time doctors.

The spokesman denied separatists' charges that Naeem Khan and Masarat Alam, two hardline separatists jailed in Jammu, were ailing without care.

Syed Ali Geelani, leader of the main separatist alliance's hardline faction which includes Khan and Alam, had said: "Our detainees are tortured and the worst is they are not even provided medical treatment."-AFP