Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday demanded unconditional release of the prisoners and hundreds of youth who he said are being punished for their political affiliations.
He said hundreds of political prisoners including youth and resistance leaders are languishing in various Indian prisons since past many years and months and all basic principles of humanity and democracy are being ignored to prolong their illegal detention on one pretext or the other.
Addressing a gathering at the historic Jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz said that detainees are supposed to be lodged closer to their homes as per the supreme court of India directions but with Kashmiris a deliberate policy of punishment is being implemented by the authorities as they have been shifted from Kashmir prisons and lodged in various Indian Jails in soaring temperatures in Rajasthan, Kotbalwal, Jammu, Kathua, Haryana, and Tihar where scores of prisoners have fallen ill and are not being provided with proper medical aid.
Mirwaiz said that senior leader and the chairman JKLF Muhammad Yasin Malik, who has not been keeping well since long, has of late, developed multiple ailments in prison, while as other political prisoners including Shabir Shah, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Masrat Alam Bhat, Dr Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehrajudin Kalwal, Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Nahida Nasreen,Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmed Watali, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Ahmed, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Dr Muhammad Shafi Shariyati, Muhammad Yousuf Falahi, Abdul Ahad Para, Abdul Gani Bhat, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Sheikh Muhammad Ramzan, Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri, Abdullah Nasir, Ghulam Qadir Bhat, Nazir Ahmed Sheikh, Muhammad Ayoub Dar, Tariq Ahmed, Muzaffar Ahmed Dar, Muhammad Hussain, Peer Muhammad Ashraf, Mushtaq Ahmed Hurrah, Yasin Ahmed Harra, Sameeullah, Asadullah Parray, Hakeem Showkat, Mehrajudin Nanda, Basharat Bazaz, Tariq Ahmed Pandit, Muhammd Hussain, Hilal Ahmed Beig, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Bashir Ahmed Bhat, Advocate Zahid Ali, Ishtiyaq Ahmed Wani, Dr Muhammad Saleem, Moulana Sarjan Barkati, Abdul Hai, Asif Sultan, Abdul Rashid Shigan many of them are suffering from one ailment or the other due to their prolonged confinement.
Mirwaiz appealed to human rights organizations especially International Red Cross Committee and other rights groups that include Amnesty International, Asia Watch, to visit the jails and to take stock of the plight of Kashmiri prisoners who are in a sad state of affairs inside their jail cells.
Mirwaiz said that many of the Kashmiri prisoners who have been booked under PSA and whenever their PSA is quashed by the respective courts, within no time they were booked under another PSA only to prolong their detention period.
Mirwaiz said that Kashmir issue is a reality and is lingering since 1947 and will continue to remain an issue until it is resolved politically involving all the parties.
