Srinagar: Welcoming the release of four Jammu and Kashmir residents—Mirza Nisar, Ali Muhammad Bhat, and Lateef Ahmed Waza of Srinagar and Abdul Gani Goni of Bhaderwah after a gap of 24 long years, the Hurrayat Conference hoped that other Kashmiri prisoners languishing in various jails across India from past many decades would also be released in a similar way and concrete steps would be taken in that direction.
In a statement issued here, the Hurriyat Conference said that these ill-fated four residents of J&K spend prime years of their lives in prison for no crime of theirs while their trials were prolonged all these years that protracted their detention period.
It said that majority of Kashmiri prisoners have been languishing in various prisons across Indian who have completed 15 to 25 years and are being denied a fair trial with the intention to prolong their detention. It said that it is unfortunate that while on one hand, the detention period of Kashmiri inmates is being prolonged , many among the Kashmiri prisoners are even denied basic health care facilities .
Hurriyat Conference said that leaders arrested and booked by NIA and ED that include Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehrajudin Kalwal, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmed Watali, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Shakeel Ahmed, Asiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fehmeeda Sofi, who are languishing in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail from past two year, and even the trial has not commenced. “They are being persecuted for their political beliefs.”
The Hurriyat Conference said that international laws as also basic principles of humanity and the jail manual should be followed dealing with the inmates as also the clear cut direction from the courts including the Indian apex court that inmates be lodged closer to their homes otherwise adding to the woes of the relatives of these prisoners who are finding it difficult to meet their loved ones
It termed it inhuman that dozens of Kashmiri prisoners were clandestinely shifted from Srinagar Central Jail to various outside jails against the court directions.