Srinagar, November 28 (KNO) : Chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Mohd Ashraf Sehrai has demanded release of political prisoners who according to him continued to remain under ‘illegal incarceration’. Sehrai in a statement issued to KNO said that shifting of political prisoners outside the valley and state elsewhere is ‘inhuman and outrageous act of repression’, which needs to be condemned across the spectrum. “The whole of Kashmir valley has been likened to an open prison where people live in conditions akin to being in a state of perpetual occupational emergency where whosoever raised his voice thrown into jails. The civil liberties and democratic rights of freedom loving people have been trampled upon by police, paramilitary and the armed forces. Draconian laws are framed and political activists during their legitimate political activity are framed under such black laws,” he said.
Sehrai lashed out at authorities over shifting of Kashmiri political prisoners from Kathua to Haryana Karnal Jail, including Umar Adil Dar, Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh, Ajz Ahmed Malik, Shabir Ahmed Rather, Asif Maqbool Bhat, Javeed Ahmed Khan, Arif Ahmed, Umer Bashir, Ab .Rashid Magloo, Tanveer Ahmed Bhat, Tanveer Ahmed Bhat, Ab .Rashid Shugan, Manzoor Ahmed Bhat, Asif Ahmed Bhat and Firdous Ahmed. Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chairman said that “in Kashmir, ultimate repression is being unleashed through military might to muzzle the rights of people and to force them into a submission.”
“Kashmiri prisoners lodged in various prisons that include Kot Bhalwal, Central Jail Srinagar, Tihar Jail Delhi, Udhampur, Kathua, Hira Nagar and other prisons outside the JK are facing tremendous hardships and even basic healthcare is not available to them. It highlights how these run counter to India's obligations under international human rights law. If India is serious about meeting these obligations, then it must ensure that the Public Safety Act is repealed and that detainees are released immediately or tried in a court of law,” he said. Sehrai said that to crush the sacred struggle of Kashmir, Delhi let loose every agency to arrest the resistance leaders that include Shabir Ahmed Shah, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehrajudin Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmed Watali, Shahid Yousuf Shah,Syed Shakeel , Dr Mohd Shafi Shah, Muzaffer Ahmed Dar,Mushtaq Ahmed Kanilwan including women Resistance leaders Asiya Andrabi ,Fahmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen who have been framed in fictitious cases and continue to lodged in Tihar Jail ‘without any justification and trial’.
Strongly condemning the continuous illegal detention of Asiya Andrabi and her Aides, he said, “Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief is suffering from multiple ailments despite that confining women folk is biggest blot on democracy and exposed "Beti Bachav Beti Padav" rhetoric badly when it comes to Kashmir be it Insha, Hiba Nisar or thousands of women’s including toddlers.”
He appealed the international community and world human rights bodies to take cognizance of the plight of Kashmiri prisoners and play their role in ensuring their release by building pressure on the GoI and also help stop the ill-treatment to these prisoners.
Paying tributes to the slain Kuthpora Budgam militants, Sehrai said, “We as a nation is indebted to these pious sacrifices and it’s our religious and moral duty to safe guard these exemplary sacrifices collectively.” “India could not silence the voices of Kashmiris through bulldozing properties and carrying genocide .Since 1947 assurances given to people of Kashmir have been consistently violated; for instance plebiscite never took place. As a last resort when a movement for ‘Azaadi’ intensified brute force is used to crush it,” he said.(KNO)