CPI(M) leader Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami Tuesday said that Kashmiri political prisoners lodged in various jails within and outside Kashmir must be released as unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases across the country had put their lives in congested jails at risk.
In a statement issued here, Tarigami said that the Supreme Court recently directed the high-powered committees to consider release of fresh prisoners by adopting the guidelines of the National Legal Services Authority on the issue to decongest jails.
He said Hundreds of Kashmiri prisoners, including some teenagers were languishing in jails within and outside J&K for years now.
“Some of them are behind the bars for years together and their cases need to be reviewed in the light of Supreme Court directions,” Tarigami said.
He said that the health conditions of some Kashmiri prisoners, lodged in Tihar and other jails outside Kashmir, had deteriorated in the recent times and if they were not released it could prove fatal for them due to the rising COVID-19 cases.
Tarigami said that some of them were in old age and suffer from multiple ailments.
He said that In the absence of proper medical assistance, these prisoners feel helpless and were in distress.
Tarigami said that it would be prudent to release all prisoners, at least on parole, keeping in view the alarming situation due to COVID-19.
He said that there were also prisoners who had minor offenses against them and whose detention order had been quashed multiple times by the courts. “The government has failed to prove charges against several people arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and other such laws. They should be released,” Tarigami said.
He said releasing all political prisoners in these tough times could end the miseries of their families as well.
“The present situation is a humanitarian crisis of the worst kind and the government needs to take a holistic view on the condition of prisoners,” Tarigami said. “Releasing prisoners before Eid could be a good gesture by the government.”