Indian jails: APHC concerned at illegally detained persons’ plight

ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has expressed concern over the plight of illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists languishing in notorious jails in India and the territory, in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The APHC spokesman in a statement issued in occupied Srinagar said that the congestion and non-availability of basic amenities as per jail manual, had made the detainees’ lives vulnerable to multiple diseases, Kashmir Media Service reported.

Denouncing the unabated arrest spree launched by Indian forces in the nook and corner of the occupied territory, he said that more than six and a half thousand leaders and activists belonging to the Kashmir resistance movement had been put behind the bars on baseless charges and fabricated grounds.

Terming the arbitrary arrests as the worst example of political vendetta, the spokesman said that such repressive policies were aimed at changing the freedom narrative of Kashmir which had remained a distant dream of Indian fascist regime since its illegal occupation of the territory.

The spokesman hailed the steadfastness and valour of the illegally detained Hurriyet leaders and activists, including APHC Chairman, Masarat Aalam Butt, Vice Chairman, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Dr Shafi Shariati, Dr Muhammad Qasim, Aasiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen, Fahmeeda Sofi, Dr Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Muhammad Yousaf Mir, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Yousaf Falahi, Nayeem Ahamad Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Shahid-ul- Islam, Farooq Ahamad Dar, Shahid Yousuf, Shakeel Yousaf, Zahoor Watali, Tariq Ahmad Dar, Nazir Ahmed Dar, Zahoor Butt, Rafiq Ganaie, Maqsood Butt, Ayoub Mir, Ayoub Dar, Nazir Pathan, Gazanfer Iqbal, Aaqib Najar, Arif Wani, Bashir Ahmad, Farooq Sheikh, Mumtaz Ahmad, Muzaffar Ahmad Dar, Tariq Pandit, Hakim Showkat, Assadullah Parryay, Merajuddin Nanda, Abdul Rasheed Lone, Hilal Ahmad Peer, Abid Zargar, Asif Sultan, Molvi Nasir, Mujahid Sehrai and Rashid Sehrai. He added these detainees have rendered unprecedented sacrifices for the Kashmir cause.

The APHC spokesman said, the people of Kashmir pay tributes to all ‘prisoners of conscience’ and hope that they will be victorious in cracking the shackles of slavery. He urged the United Nations to take cognizance of the plight of Kashmiri political prisoners lodged in death cells without medical care and basic amenities in all the over populated jails of India and the occupied territory.

The spokesman stressed the need to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions in the best interests of regional and world peace and prosperity.