UK urged to speak out on Aasiya Andrabi’s life sentence
London: Kashmir Campaign Global has condemned the life sentence imposed on Kashmiri political figure Aasiya Andrabi by a Delhi court, describing the ruling as a grave escalation in the use of so-called anti-terror legislation against pro-freedom voices from occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Andrabi was sentenced to life imprisonment, while her aides Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen were each sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Zaffar Ahmad Quraishi, Chairman of Kashmir Campaign Global, said: “This is not justice. This is the political punishment of a Kashmiri voice through a legal framework increasingly used to suppress dissent rather than resolve conflict. The sentencing of Aasiya Andrabi will be seen across Kashmir and far beyond as another attempt to criminalise the demand for dignity, identity and self-determination.
The United Kingdom, which speaks often of human rights and democratic freedoms, should not avert its gaze when those principles are denied in Kashmir. Silence in the face of such judgments only deepens the sense of impunity.
Jailing leaders does not erase a political dispute. It does not bring peace. It does not command legitimacy. It only underlines the urgency of renewed international attention to the unresolved Kashmir question.”
Kashmir Campaign Global said the judgment would raise fresh concerns among rights advocates about the shrinking space for political expression in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and called on UK parliamentarians, human rights organisations, and the international community to scrutinise the wider pattern of repression in the region.
The organisation said the case should not be viewed in isolation, but as part of a broader pattern in which Kashmiri political, religious and civil voices face detention, prosecution and prolonged incarceration under security laws. That is Kashmir Campaign Global’s assessment and framing of the case. The confirmed, reportable development today is the sentence itself.
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