Srinagar: Kashmir’s lawyers’ body on Saturday requested the High Court to better the conditions of the prisoners lodged in different jails of the State.
The Kashmir High Court Bar Association said that state’s highest court, which is hearing a PIL, filed by it, to better the conditions of the prisoners lodged in different jails of the State and has also taken sou-mottu cognizance of the matter, in pursuance of the judgment of the Supreme Court to take judicial notice of the matter, so as to provide appropriate relief to all those detainees and under trial prisoners.
The apex court has ordered for treating the prisoners not as objects but as human beings, irrespective of the fact as to how despicable, their prior actions have been, to demonstrate an unflagging treatment to human dignity.
“The prisoners are languishing in jails and despite the quashing of their orders of detention or passing of orders of release, they are still behind the Bars,” he said.
The lawyers’ body also strongly condemns the re-arrest of Masarat Alam Bhat, inside Kotebalwal Jail Jammu and of taking him to some unknown place, after his 35th order of detention was quashed recently by the High Court and had directed his forthwith release.
The lawyers body terms it “ruthless, barbaric and a glaring and perpetual violation of his human rights.”
“The Bar Association feels that it is not for the first time, that after quashing of his order of detention that Masarat Alam Bhat has been re-arrested inside the jail and lodged at some unknown place, but in the past also, he has been re-arrested and detained in the same manner, many a times and has been hounded by the police and other agencies in an illegal and unlawful manner.” The lawyers body said that keeping him in different police and interrogation centres is contrary to UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other International Covenants and Agreements, which guarantee the protection of life and liberty of human beings all over the world.
The method and manner in which, Masarat Alam Bhat and other detainees including Asiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Ghulam Mohammad Khan Sopori, Sheikh Mohamad Yousuf and Haji Rustum Bhat and others have been treated by the government and its agencies, leaves no manner of doubt that J&K State is a “police State” and no police or jail official was bothered to follow the rule of law or honour the orders of the Court, which orders are being disrespected off and on, least bothering for the consequences.
“The Bar Association maintains that right to life and liberty, cannot be cut-out or cut-down without fair legal procedure and any form of illegal detention and torture offends the human dignity and constitutes an inroad into the sacred right of life and liberty,” the spokesman said, he urged International Community to take a note.
“All other human rights organizations of the world should come forward to protect the legal and fundamental rights of the people of Kashmir, who have been and are being brutalized and tortured for their political belief.”
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