Terming as alarming the plight of Kashmiri detainees lodged in and outside Kashmir jails, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik today said, "Authorities are hell bent on making their lives more miserable."
"People of Kashmir are seriously concerned about the deteriorating health condition of senior leader Shabir Ahmad Dar and JKLF organizer Siraj-ud-Din Mir, who are both seriously ill and have now been shifted to hospital by Kot-balwal Jail authorities. Other leaders, Asiya Andrabi and Shabir Ahmad Shah who are languishing in Tihar Jail, are also suffering from various ailments," Yasin Malik said in a statement.
He said, "Rulers have actually declared a war against people of Kashmir. In all aspects of life, Kashmiris are facing indiscrimination, apathy and oppression at the hands of the state."
"Being a signatory to the Geneva Convention on prisoner rights, it was obligatory on New Delhi to recognize rights of Kashmiri prisoners but contrary to this, state is suppressing Kashmiri prisoners and subjecting them to the worst torture, cruelty and apathy and putting their lives in jeopardy," he said.
Terming the health condition of senior leaders Shabir Ahmad Dar and Siraj Ud- Din as worrying, the JKLF chairman said, "Two years back Shabir Ahmad Dar suffered a severe heart attack in police custody and since then he is on life saving medicines. Recently Shabir Ahmad Dar fainted at Kot-balwal jail and has now been hospitalized. Likewise JKLF leader Siarj-ud-din Mir who is elderly and suffering from different ailments recently lost consciousness and fell down in the jail. He even sustained injuries on his face and forehead. He too has been shifted to some hospital in Jammu for treatment."
He said, "Kashmiri detainees are prisoners of conscience and needed to be protected by international humanitarian laws but ironically international community is sitting silent on this which can only be termed as horrible."
