Srinagar, August 02 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, Amina Malik, sister of illegally detained Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Muhammad Yasin Malik, has said that her brother is being tortured and put on a slow death trail by the Indian government for being a political adversary having a different political belief and ideology.
Amina Malik addressing a press conference in Srinagar, today, said that Yasin Malik was arrested on February 22, 2019 from his residence in Maisuma area of Srinagar and was slapped with draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) and sent to Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu. She said that he was kept in solitary confinement at the said jail for one month or so and then was taken into custody by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on baseless, concocted and fabricated charges and was arbitrarily shifted to New Delhi and tortured at the NIA headquarters.
She said Yasin Malik started a hunger strike against the NIA’s brutal attitude and after he became seriously ill was shifted to a Delhi hospital and from there NIA court sent him to Tihar jail on judicial custody that still continues. She said that after his shifting to Tihar jail, he was kept in high security ward for many days under solitary confinement and was not provided any medicine and other necessary things.
Amina Malik said that during torture at NIA headquarter, one of eyes of Yasin Malik was seriously injured and a clot still remains in his eye. “Our lawyer Advocate, Raja Tufail, moved court and asked the authorities to shift him to some other ward and provide him with proper medical facilities. Though court didn’t accept the plea but Yasin Malik was shifted to another ward probably to hoodwink court as well as the human rights advocates and organizations,” she added.
She said, Yasin Malik nowadays lodged in jail No 7 of notorious Tihar Jail for the last four months is continuously being kept in solitary confinement as no other inmate is allowed to even talk to him from a distance. She said that books, journals and even newspapers were not being allowed to reach Yasin Malik and being a heart patient, he needed certain life-saving drugs which were even being disallowed or delayed to him.
Amina Malik said, Yasin Malik is a heart patient and has undergone a heart valve transplant surgery in 1992, adding, he is also suffering from certain serious ailments related to vital organs of his body including kidneys. She said that at Tihar jail he had developed a slipped Disc/ herniated disc due to which he was suffering from severe back pain. “One if his ears that had been operated upon in the US a few years ago has developed an infection that is further aggravating his physical agony,” she deplored.
She said, a high voltage bulb has been kept on 24/7 on his cell that is damaging his eyesight and whenever she saw him in the last four months, his eyes were red and he is barely able to read things. “NIA is leveling concocted allegations on him that he has properties etc. We want to ask them to show these properties and prove their propaganda based allegations. Yasin Malik is an open book and everyone knows what he has and what not,” she maintained.
Amina Malik said, “Despite all these medical complicacies, my brother, Muhammad Yasin Malik, is neither being provided with any medical facility that is actually guaranteed to a prisoner nor is his solitary confinement ending despite many of our pleas before the court. It seems that some hidden or unspoken orders by rulers and their agencies have been given to Tihar Jail authorities to put my brother in more and more trouble and inflict more miseries to him.”
She said that the situation was such that she during her last visit to him July 26, 2019, asked the jail authorities to allow a bed sheet to him so that he could put it on cemented floor to overcome his back pain but that too was refused. “The apathy of rulers and jail authorities towards Yasin Malik is actually like killing him slowly and today I appeal to everyone with conscience and humanity, to speak against this undemocratic, inhuman and tyrannical attitude of the Indian authorities,” she added.
She said that Yasin Malik’s lawyer, Raja Tufail, recently submitted a bail application before the court that there are no specific allegations against Yasin Malik and that he has been languishing in judicial custody since a long time. The application further said that nothing was recovered from Yasin Malik and that his further custody would serve no fruitful purpose.
She said that the layers also informed the court about the failure of authorities in providing him proper medical facilities and also about his continuing solitary confinement for last four months. “The lawyer asked the court to graciously grant bail to Yasin Malik in the present case or pass any other order that the court may deem fit in the facts and circumstances of the present case,” she maintained. She said that on August 01, 2019 was the hearing of this case but ironically the NIA, using delaying tactics and lame excuses, manipulated the court and got another date to submit its reply. The next hearing has been kept on 14th august 2019.
Amina Malik said, “We only want to ask Indian authorities that if they want to keep Yasin Malik, a peaceful political leader in jail, do keep him but you have no right to deny him a proper treatment and medical care according to established laws and norms. If you are not able to provide him necessary medical care, release him on bail so that we can provide him the important medical care and save his life. We are asking for rights that every other prisoner is entitled to according to Geneva Convention. Why this apathy and cruelty towards Yasin Malik? If Indian government thinks that Kashmir dispute can be resolved by killing Yasin Malik, then they should do so it once, why put him on a slow death trail?”