Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq termed the amendment to the Public Safety Act through an ordinance by the Governor led State Administrative Council (SAC), allowing lodging of a detainee in jail outside the state, as contrary to the basic principles of humanity and reflection of revenge mentality against political prisoners.
In a statement issued here, the Hurriyat Conference expressed strong concern and the resentment over the amendment and said that scores of Kashmiri political prisoners have already been shifted to jails outside the State and the new law is aimed to shift the remaining prisoners which is against the Indian Supreme Court ruling that says prisoners facing trial be lodged in jails closer to their homes.
Hurriyat Conference said dozens of prisoners lodged in outside prisons including notorious Tihar in New Delhi are deprived of basic medical facilities and are lodged with criminals which pose a big threat to their lives.
The amalgam said amendment to draconian PSA was aimed at further instilling fear among people among the families of prisoners and to build pressure on people of Kashmir to force them into submission.
It said people of Kashmir are already suffering on every front due to the unbridled powers given to lakhs of forces to unleash terror on common masses and now amendment to PSA seems another move to strengthen that repress.
The Hurriyat Conference also castigated New Delhi for imposing arbitrary censorship and disallowing foreign journalists from visiting Jammu and Kashmir and stated that the move reflects Delhi’s desperation to keep away foreign media from reporting the truth about the ground realities of Kashmir especially the worst state repression being unleashed on people of Kashmir.
It said that the move to stop foreign media from visiting and reporting Kashmir amounts to direct assault on the freedom of press and that the international media should take note of it and protest this undemocratic gesture.
Hurriyat Conference said that Kashmir was the only place where foreign media is prevented from reporting the events at a time when human rights violations are at an all time high.
“In today’s age of technology and mass media people across the globe are well aware of the day to day happenings in Kashmir.”
