Srinagar: While strongly condemning the harassment of the Udhampur district Jail detainees at the hands of the Jail officials, Hurriyat (G) appealed the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) and Amnesty International to take serious note of the miserable condition of the detainees in Udhampur and other Jails of the state.

Hurriyat (G) said that the government is treating the political Kashmiri prisoners at par with the professional criminals and murderers and they are subjected to the political vengeance in the jails.

In a statement to KNS, Hurriyat (G) said that many political activists and the students have been detained in Udhampur District Jail under the draconian law-PSA.

Families of some Kashmiri detainees Saturday came to the Hurriyat (G) head office at Hyderpora and complained that a police personal Nazir Ahmad deployed in the Udhampur Jail had made the lives of the Kashmiri prisoners a hell and he is harassing them in every possible ways. Besides this the prisoners are treated like animals in the district jail and they are kept in isolation and dark cells.

The family members of the detainees further said that the Kashmiri prisoners are forced to do hard labour there and on the refusal, they are being subjected to the custodial violence.

The relatives of the prisoners said that the attitude of the Jail administration towards the ill detainees is their criminal negligence wherein the ill prisoners are left to suffer and there is no adequate medical facility available for their treatment.

While stating the horrific tale of atrocities and cruelties in the district Jail Udhampur, the family members of the Kashmiri detainees said that the prisoners in the said jail are served the dinner at 03:30 pm in the day which freezes till the evening and there is no facility available to warm it.

According to the prisoners the food which is served in the said jail is also of a substandard quality which is a major reason of the frequent illness of the inmates.

Hurriyat conference said that the Kashmiri prisoners are illegally detained in Jails which are hundred miles away from their home towns and despite construction of many new Jails in the Kashmir valley the authorities are still shifting the detainees to the Jammu Jails where many communal elements have been deployed in the Jails who are duty bound to harass the Kashmiri detainee in every possible ways.

Hurriyat (G) said that the jail laws although give special rights to the political prisoners but the Kashmiri prisoners are not provided these rights anywhere and they are instead treated worst than the professional criminals.

Hurriyat (G) said that this is not the story of the Udhampur Jail only but all the Jails in India and in the state share same stories for the Kashmiri prisoners and particularly the Jammu Jails have been practically converted into Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib Jails and the Kashmiri political prisoners are subjected to the custodial tortures there.

Hurriyat (G) appealed the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) and Amnesty International to visit the sate Jails to know the miserable condition of the Kashmiri detainees particularly the political prisoners in Udhampur Jail and play their part to highlight this issue. (KNS)