Srinagar, Mar 04: Condemning shifting of Qasim Faktoo, Shafi Shareti, Gh Qadir Bhat and many others to various jails in Jammu, AIP supremo and MLA Langate Er. Rasheed has said that the move is inhuman and violates the own rules and regulations of the state which make it mandatory that prisoners should be lodged in their respective district jails.
According to an AIP press release, interacting with various deputations in Handwara today, Er Rasheed said that the excuse being given to justify the shifting of prisoners makes no sense for more than one reason.
“Isn’t it laughable that those who claim not to give even an inch of J&K’s territory, are so scared of helpless detainees that they have waged a war against Kashmiri prisoners in every jail?” he said.
“People like Qasim Faktoo, Shafi Shareti and Gh. Qadir Bhat have been in jail since about two decades and even the jail authorities have often confessed their civilized, rationale and human approach in jails from time to time. It is a known fact that they have carried out counseling of even criminals lodged with them and transformed them from worst to good human-beings,” Rasheed said.
He said the government and its agencies must not forget that most of these detainees are “political prisoners and just for their political ideologies, they cannot be subjected to humiliation and treated like criminals.”
Rasheed reminded Narendra Modi of his offer to embrace Kashmiris and said to prove his word people like Qasim Faktoo, Masrat Aalam, Shafi Shareti and Ghulam Qadir Bhat should have been released without any conditions.
“While Ramachandran, convicted in the murderer of Rajiv Gandhi has been given parole for two weeks to see his mother, Kashmiri prisoners are being harassed for none of their fault. If someone has fled from the hospital, what is the fault of those lodged in Srinagar central jail?” he said.
“The crackdown on Srinagar central jail itself creates certain questions about the fleeing of the foreigner militant from the hospital. The possibility that authorities were in search of an opportunity to shift and harass detainees in Central jail cannot be ruled out and there can be other dimensions also behind the whole story,” Rasheed said while appealing the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to reconsider the decision of shifting “veteran political prisoners” outside Kashmir.
He asked the CM to “not fall in trap of security agencies every time”.
