Describing the ongoing arrest of men from across the Kashmir valley as the most undemocratic, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Monday said that thousands of men, young and old, are being put behind bars and tortured physically and mentally. The leadership in a joint statement released to the press said the arrests were going on unabated from southern districts of Kashmir to northern districts and central Kashmir.
“Some months back, the DG of police issued a statement and urged upon warring parties to not involve families into their hostilities. At that time echoed same assertions and urged everyone spare families. But today villages, towns and localities of Kashmir especially in southern districts of Kashmir are witnessing a reign of fresh arrests wherein family members of those in armed and political struggle are being arrested, tortured and humiliated by police, SOG and other forces. Scores of family members of those in resistance have been arrested from Tral, Pulwama, Shupian, Kulgam, Bijbehara, Sonawari and other areas and are being tortured, beaten and humiliated in lockups by police, SOG and other forces which is exactly opposite to the views expressed by DGP and are highly condemnable,” they said.
The JRL said, “Persecuting families of opponents is nothing but cowardice and spree of arrests and imposition of hardships on those in jails for holding a political view contrary to that of so-called rulers is despotism.”
“Kashmiri leaders are lodged at Tihar Delhi and are facing discrimination. AsiyaAndrabi, FahmidaSofi and NaheedaNasreen who were recently shifted to this Jail have been put into different cells where they are not even allowed to walk for some minutes. These ailing ladies are being provided eatables in polythene bags and their request to get some plastic plate or mug have been rejected by jail authorities. Similarly in other barracks where Shabir Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saif-u-ullah, Raja Meraj-u-Din Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Ahmad Watali, and ShahidYousuf Shah, Muhammad AslamWani, Muzafar Ahmad Dar have been kept, water scarcity, lack of electricity in these hot months, lack of medicines and poor quality of food has made lives of inmates miserable. Likewise Kuthowa jail, Udhampor jail, Kot-balwal jail, Hira-Nagar jail, Srinagar central jail, Jammu Amphala Jail and other jails have been turned into worst concentration camps where inmates are tortured, beaten, put in solitary confinements and humiliated at daily basis,” the leaders said.
They said, “Recently uncle of incarcerated Muslim league chairman MasartAalam who is in jail from 2010 and uncle of SarjanBarkati who is in jail from 2016 breathed their last neither Masarat sahib nor MoulanaBarkati where allowed to join their funeral or burial. Even convicts are allowed to join bereavement of their kith and kin but such is the cruel attitude of rulers and their partners in Kashmir that normal procedures are undermined by authorities. JRL said that India being a signatory to the Geneva Convention on political prisoners has an obligation to respect the rights of prisoners but as in case of other human rights.”
JRL said, “Thousands of young and old are these days being called to police stations, arrested and put behind bars. This is being done ahead of August 15. As EidulAzha is approaching, this spree of arrests has taken an ugly turn and at a time when families of inmates are expecting the release of their dear ones, jails and police stations are being filled up with more and more Kashmiris.”
They said, “Kashmiris want the innocent political victims to be released from jails soon so that they are also able to celebrate Eid with their families.”
JRL said, “International community, human rights organizations like Amnesty International, ICRC and UN human Rights Commission need to take a strong note of these atrocities being committed upon Kashmiri prisoners and intervene to save the lives of these poor inmates.”
“We will soon write letters to all these international bodies and seek their intervention in regard with Kashmiri inmates,” JRL added.