DFP marks 9 years of Shabbir Shah’s continued detention, hails his sacrifices
Islamabad : The Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) on Thursday marked nine years since the current incarceration of its Chairman and veteran Kashmiri resistance leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah.
According to Kashmir Media Service, DFP Acting Chairman Mahmood Ahmad Saghar in a statement said Shah has spent nearly 39 years and six months of his life in prisons and detention centres.
“Such an extraordinary period of imprisonment is rarely matched in any movement for freedom, justice, and the right to self-determination,” he said.
Saghar stated that Shah has dedicated his entire political life to the peaceful struggle for the people of Jammu and Kashmir’s internationally recognised right to self-determination.
Despite prolonged imprisonment, solitary confinement, deteriorating health and sustained political pressure, he has never compromised on his principles, he added.
He noted that Shah’s commitment has received international recognition, recalling that in 1994 Amnesty International declared him a “Prisoner of Conscience.”
Owing to his endurance and decades in jail, he has also come to be known as the “Nelson Mandela of Kashmir,” Saghar said.
The Acting Chairman said Shah remains a symbol of hope, resilience and sacrifice for millions of Kashmiris and that “ideas cannot be imprisoned, nor can the aspiration of a people for freedom and justice be extinguished through repression.”
Mahmood Ahmad Saghar urged the United Nations, international community and global human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to take urgent notice of the prolonged detention of Shah and other Kashmiri political prisoners and to make meaningful efforts for their release. He reaffirmed that DFP pays the highest tribute to Shabir Ahmad Shah and remains committed to pursuing a peaceful and democratic struggle until the people of Jammu and Kashmir are able to exercise their right to self-determination.
