Hurriyat leader Hayat Butt released from Jammu jail after 6 years
APHC urges UN chief to pressure India to free all Kashmiri political detainees
Srinagar: Hurriyat leader Hayat Ahmed Butt was released after six years from Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu, Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Hayat Ahmed Butt of Soura, Srinagar, was arrested by Indian police in October 2019 under the black laws Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on the charge of mobilizing youth against India’s illegal occupation. Despite curfews and restrictions, he was one of the main leaders who spearheaded massive protests against the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in Soura area of Srinagar and against the BJP’s anti-Kashmir policies.
At the time, the then Director General of Police, Dilbag Singh, had ordered his arrest and booked him under PSA for organizing agitation against the abrogation of Article 370 in Anchar Lake and Soura areas of Srinagar in 2019. “His arrest is a major breakthrough,” the DGP had claimed.
On Wednesday, Butt returned to his family in Srinagar’s Soura locality.
Meanwhile, APHC spokesman Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement in Srinagar, appealed to the UN Secretary-General to pressurize the Indian government to free all Kashmiri political detainees, including APHC Chairman Massarat Alam Butt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Aasiya Andrabi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Bilal Siddiqi, Maulvi Bashir Ahmed, Abdul Ahad Parra, and others languishing in different jails in India and IIOJK.
He said keeping in view the deteriorating health conditions of the detainees, it is necessary to release them immediately, as any further delay may put their lives at risk and plunge justice into darkness.
