APHC expresses concern over plight of illegally detained Kashmiris, urges world to press India for their release
Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has expressed grave concern over the plight of illegally detained Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth languishing in jails in India and the occupied territory, and urged the United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and international human rights organizations to press India for their release.
According to Kashmir Media Service, APHC spokesman Advocate Abdul Rashid Minhas, in a statement issued in Srinagar, said that India had imprisoned more than 3,000 Kashmiris, including Hurriyat leaders, in fabricated cases.
He said the mass detention of Kashmiris was aimed at punishing Kashmiris for demanding freedom from Indian occupation, but such coercive measures could not suppress their aspiration for freedom. He noted that some detainees had spent more than two decades behind bars, including Dr. Mohammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Dr. Muhammad Shafi Shariati, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Nazir Ahmad Sheikh, Mohammad Ayub Dar, Mohammad Ayub Mir, Javed Ahmad Khan, Feroz Ahmed Dar, Abdul Hameed Tailee, Tariq Ahmed Mattoo, Mahmood Topi Wala, Bashir Ahmad Pannu, Fayyaz Ahmed, Sharifud-Din-Gujjar, Muhammad Ashraf Peer, Khalid Mehboob Phalwan, Maqsood Ahmed Bhat, Pervaiz Ahmed Mir, Mohammad Abbas Wani, Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, Abdul Waheed, Abdul Rasheed Mir and Fahdullah.
The spokesman said thousands of Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth, including APHC chairman, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Aasiya Andrabi, Ayaz Akbar, Shahid-ul-Islam, Merajuddin Kalwal, Peer Saifullah, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Molvi Bashir Ahmad Irfani, Bilal Siddiqi, Mohammad Rafiq Ganai, ,Zafar Akbar Butt, Farooq Ahmed Tawheedi, Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori, Umar Adil Dar, Saleem Nanaji, Muhammad Yasin Butt, Fayaz Hussain Jaferi, Showket Hakeem, Mohammad Hayat Bhat, Mehrjudin Nanda, Yasim Butt, Engineer Rashid, were facing prolonged incarceration, worst physical torture and discriminatory treatment in the jails of India and the occupied territory.
He maintained that despite continued detention and physical and mental torture, the morale of all Hurriyat leaders and activists was high and they were ready to render any sacrifice for the Kashmir cause. He said the people of IIOJK remained proud of Hurriyat leaders and activists, who are either in jails or striving on ground for achieving a peaceful and sustainable solution to the Kashmir dispute under UN resolutions.
Minhas said state repression against political, social and human rights activists had intensified, with people being summoned to police stations every now and then, harassed and compelled to appear before courts far from their homes. He also said that previously closed cases were being reopened against hundreds of political activists.
“Arbitrary arrests and warrants, prolonged detention under black laws, fabricated cases, harsh sentences, reopening of decades-old cases, attachment of properties and sacking of employees have become a new normal in Kashmir,” he said, adding that families of political activists were also being subjected to legal harassment.
The APHC spokesman went on to add that the BJP-led Indian government led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah was using judiciary as a weapon to silence legitimate political voices in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
He urged UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the OIC, ICRC and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Asia Watch, to use their influence to secure the release of Kashmiri political prisoners and activists, stop use of state repression to crush political dissent in Kashmir and help facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions.
