Srinagar: Kashmir High Court Bar Association on Saturday condemned treatment meted out to the Kashmiri prisoners lodged in Tihar Jail.
In a statement issued here, the lawyers’ body said that they are targeted psychologically by either confining them in small cells or in big wards alongwith criminals, who leave no stone unturned in harassing and humiliating them.
The lawyers’ body demanded that all of the Kashmiri prisoners lodged in Tihar Jail should be lodged in a single barrack or at least separate from those, who are in jail for the commission of “heinous crimes”, as they feel insecure in their company.
The Bar Association also requested the International Red Cross to play its role in seeking the lodgment of Kashmiri prisoners in one barrack of Tihar jail, so that while in jail they do not feel insecure or face any threat to their life. It also strongly condemns the firing of indiscriminate pellets and teargas smoke shells inside the historic Jamia Masjid Srinagar on Friday in which at least 50 people including women and children were injured and most of whom with pellet injuries, in their one or both eyes and other parts of the body and bleeding profusely, had to be referred to the hospitals for specialized treatment. The pellets were not only fired by the government forces on the people who were outside the mosque but also on those, who were inside the mosque, as a result of which, many people inside the mosque got injured and their blood splattered on the floor of the mosque, inviting condemnation from one and all against the brute forces, it said.
“It is not for the first time that the government forces have used bullets, pellets and teargas smoke shells against the people, who wanted to offer their prayers in the Jamia Masjid but in the past also, these forces have used such methods against the people just to harass and humiliate them and prevent them from offering their prayers in the mosque,” he said. The deployment of forces around Jamia Masjid on Fridays has also created a sense of fear among traders as well as shopkeepers, who have to close their shops and business establishments and are thereby deprived of earning their livelihood by these ruthless forces, it said. “At a time when it is being proclaimed that there is “Ramazan ceasefire” and no army operation will be carried out in any part of Kashmir but on the other, the people who only want to offer their prayers in mosques are being targeted, teased, tortured and attacked with bullets and pellets, without any provocation, just to prevent them from performing their religious obligations, which is highly shameful.”
The lawyers’ body also condemned the nocturnal raids conducted by the forces, during the intervening night of 25/26th of May , at Arwani Bijbehara, during the course they dragged out Rafiq Ahmad Najar, Mudasir Ahmad Malik, Saqib Malik, Sadam Malik and Nissar Ahmad, from their houses and also beat the womenfolk, who tried to resist the forces action, in which the mother of Mohammad Amin Najar, got severely injured. “The ruthless forces also caused damage to the houses of the people by breaking the doors and windows of their houses, causing huge loss to them.”
