Srinagar, July 17: Joint Hurriyat Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik termed the shifting of Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief Asiya Andrabi and her two associates Fehmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen to Tihar Jail New Delhi under 30 days of Judicial custody by NIA as “sheer political vendetta” and said the move is aimed at building pressure on the resistance leadership to force them into a submission.
The spokesman in a statement said that NIA and the ED have already booked dozens of resistance leaders and Kashmiri businessmen under “frivolous” charges and all those arrested continue to remain lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail along with the dreaded criminals.
The leadership said that these leaders are deprived of the fair trial and whenever the dates of their trial come closer, the jail authorities evade the trials on one or the other pretext.
The Joint Hurriyat said that the Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Tihar, Kotbalwal, Jammu, Kathua, Kotbalwal, and Udhampur are being meted out very ill-treatment and are even kept away from the basic medical aid, which should serve an eye opener for the international community.
The leaders expressed serious concern over the deteriorating condition of resistance leaders arrested by NIA and ED languishing in Tihar Jail that include Shabir Ahmed Shah, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Mehrajudin Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Shahid Yousuf and a prominent businessmen Zahoor Ahmed Watali. The leaders urged the international rights groups to visit various India jails to get firsthand account of the “pain and atrocities” inflicted on the Kashmiri prisoners.
The leadership said that the relatives of most of the Kashmiri resistance leaders who met them in Tihar narrated a painful tale that includes non-availability of sleeping material, medicines, and things required by a person on a daily basis. They said that all the prisoners complained of absence of proper medical aid guaranteed by the jail manual.
The leadership said that those claiming to be the champions of democracy are themselves violating the rules of democracy as witnessed in Tihar jail.
The leadership appealed the heads of all rights forums across the globe that include Amnesty International, Asia Watch, and CRC urging them to conduct a thorough visit of various Indian and other jails of Jammu and Kashmir that include Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Kotbalwal, and also the Central Jail Srinagar to take the stock of the ill-treatment meted out to the prisoners.
The leadership strongly denounced the questioning of an accredited journalist from Kashmir, Auqib Javaid by the NIA stating that these steps are aimed at instilling fear among the Kashmir’s journalist fraternity to prevent them from highlighting the violence in Kashmir.
