Srinagar, July 17: The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik has termed the shifting of Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Asiya Andrabi and her two associates Fehmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen to Tihar Jail, Delhi under 30 days of judicial custody by NIA as sheer political vendetta.
“The move is aimed at building pressure on the resistance leadership to force them into submission,” the JRL said in a statement issued to GNS.
The leadership said that NIA and ED have already booked dozens of resistance leaders and Kashmiri businessmen under “frivolous” charges and all those arrested continue to remain lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail along with the dreaded criminals.
“These leaders are deprived of the fair trial and whenever dates of their trial come closer, the jail authorities evade the trials on one or the other pretext,” it said.
The JRL said that the Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Tihar, Kot Bhalwal, Kathua, and Udhampur are meting very ill-treatment and are even kept away from the basic medical aid, which should serve an eye opener for the international community.
The leadership expressed serious concern over the deteriorating condition of resistance leaders arrested by NIA and ED languishing in Tihar Jail which include Shabir Ahmed Shah, Advocate Shahidul Islam, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Mehrajudin Kalwal, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Shahid Yousuf and a prominent businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali. The leadership urged the international rights groups to visit various India jails to get firsthand account of the “pain and atrocities” inflicted on the Kashmiri prisoners .
The leaders said that the relatives of most of the Kashmiri resistance leaders who met them in Tihar narrated a painful tale that includes non-availability of sleeping material, medicines, and things required by a person on a daily basis. They said that all the prisoners complained absence of proper medical aid guaranteed by the jail manual.
The leadership said that those claiming to be the champions of democracy are themselves violating the rules of democracy as witnessed in Tihar jail.
The JRL appealed the heads of all rights forums across the globe including Amnesty International, Asia Watch, and CRC to conduct a thorough visit of various Indian and other jails of Jammu and Kashmir including Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Kot Bhalwal, and also the Central Jail Srinagar to take the stock of the “ill treatment” meted out to the prisoners.
The leadership strongly denounced the questioning of an accredited journalist from Kashmir, Auqib Javeed by NIA saying that these steps are aimed at instilling fear among the Kashmir’s journalist fraternity to prevent them from “highlighting the ultimate oppression unleashed by the lakhs of forces”. (GNS)
