Expressing serious concern over the plight of Kashmiri prisoners lodged in various prisons in and outside the State prisons, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik Friday said that Kashmiri inmates are being punished only for having contrary political views. He also said that people of J&K will never allow Kashmir to become another Palestine and that the special citizenship rights will be protected with the “blood of every citizen.”
The Front chairman stated this after leading a protest march in support of Article 35 A at Maisuma after Friday congregational prayers. Malik said that Kashmiri prisoners languishing in various jails in J&K, Tihar, Kotbalwal and other prisons are being deprived of the basic medical aid and are being treated like animals.
“The ill treatment meted out to the Kashmiri prisoners is only because they have a contrary view,” Malik said and demanded unconditional release of inmates who have been languishing in various prisons since past many decades for no crime except for their political belief.
He said that even females haven’t been spared as Dukhtaran-e-Milat chief Asiya Andrabi and her two close aides, Fahmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen too have been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail. “These woman prisoners have been kept in solitary confinement which is an irony and against the basic principles of humanity and jail manual,” the JKLF chief said.
He said that the arrest spree has not stopped and even today, people irrespective of age and gender are detained, arrested and slapped with draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted outside the state.
“Today, villages and towns in southern districts of Kashmir are witnessing a arrest spree where families of militants are harassed and relations of militants taken into custody,” he alleged. This all, he said, is happening despite assurances by the State police chief that families shouldn’t be involved.
Malik said that last year, many resistance leaders including 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 Shahid Yousuf Shah, Muhammad Aslam Wani, Muzafar Ahmad Dar and others were arrested and they continue to remain lodged in Delhi’s Tihar.
“Kathua, Kotbalwal, Hira Nagar, Central Jail Srinagar are nothing but concentration camps where inmates are tortured, thrashed and put in a solitary confinements,” Malik alleged.
On the Article 35 A, Malik said that people of J&K will not allow turn their land into another Palestine.
“In Palestine, original residents are being thrown out by Israeli forces and same seems to be plan for Kashmir,” Malik said. He said that state subject law guarantees “our unique identity and is linked with the people’s movement for right to self determination.” “Defending it is the duty of every inhabitant of J&K,” he said. “Any tinkering with hereditary state subject law will face a full-fledged agitation in J&K. Any change in demography of the State is detrimental to all inhabitants of this land and people of J&K will spill their blood to safeguard the uniqueness of this land.”
The JKLF chief said that the people of State are striving for their right of self determination and state subject law is directly linked with this right.
“State subject law is in all respects linked to our right of self determination and any attack on it will have detrimental consequences on our identity,” he said and urged people to be ready for a full-fledged people’s agitation if any adverse decision is delivered by Supreme Court on August 27.