Srinagar, Jan 18: All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders and activists, today, held ‘peaceful protests’ after Friday prayers in Hyderpora area of Srinagar and castigated the ‘prolonged detention and the ill-treatment meted out to Hurriyat leaders’ in different jails. They also condemned the mistreatment of Hurriyat leader, Peer Saifullah in Tihar jail, whose health condition was deteriorating.
The press release issued here said that the leaders and activists condemned the pro-long detention of political prisoners and termed it as ‘extreme vandalism and coercion’, which, they said, amounted to a martial law like situation. Suppressing the ‘pro-freedom voice’ and curbing their ‘peaceful activities’ was no bravery and the government would be solely responsible for the consequences, the press release said.
The protesting leaders demanded immediate release of all political prisoners Shabir Ahmad Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehraj-ud-din Kalwal, Dr. Gh. Mohammad Bhat, Shahid-ul-Islam, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Ahmad, Zahoor Ahmad Watali, Asia Indrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fehmeeda Sofi.
The leaders also appealed Amnesty International, Asia Watch and other international organization to break silence and take cognizance of the plight of ‘suppressed and oppressed’ people in state of Jammu and Kashmir and urged such bodies to fulfill their obligations in accordance with human rights specified for the political prisoners, the press release said.
Meanwhile Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, in a separate press release, expressed serious concern over the deteriorating health condition of senior Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Peer Saifullah stating that he was being subjected to brutalities and that in absence of proper medical care his health condition was worsening each day. “It is the moral and legal responsibility of the administration to provide proper treatment to Peer Saifullah, who is a patient. He also appealed for his release saying that even ailing detainee who is suffering from Brain Tumor wasn’t being spared.
“Despite clear-cut directions from the Indian Supreme Court that prisoners be lodged to the jails closer to their homes, dozens of Kashmiri prisoners were shifted outside the State and are lodged in jails in various parts of India where they are facing extreme suppression in terms of absence of all the basic facilities guaranteed by the jail manuals,” Sehrai was quoted as saying.
