KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
J&K High Court Bar Association on Saturday strongly condemned the ill treatment meted out to Kashmir prisoners lodged in high security wards of different jails of Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi. The bar also alleged that the prisoners have been deprived of canteen and medical treatment facilities for the last three months.
Citing “reliable sources”, the Bar statement said that nine canteens which were being run in jail number 01 to 09 of jail and were providing eateries to the Kashmiri and other inmates on concessional rates, during day time, have been closed ever since the new Director General of Prison New Delhi, has taken over.
“As a result,” the statement said, “all the inmates and more particularly the Kashmiri prisoners who are lodged in high security cells in these jails are facing tremendous difficulties, because they cannot now, even take a glass of water or a cup of tea unless the same is asked for by them and is provided to them in a routine manner from langer.”
According to the statement, the canteen facilities were available to all the inmates in jail ever since it started functioning. “By stopping the practice, all the inmates and more particularly the Kashmiri prisoners have been deprived of the said facility in an illegal and unlawful manner by the new dispensation,” it said.
The association said that all the prisoners, under the Jail Manual are entitled to keep a good amount of money in their PP accounts, so as to make use of the same as and when necessary, but the jail authorities have deprived them of this facility as well.
“The medical treatment in the jail, has also been stopped and in case of emergencies, the inmates are also not been taken for treatment to the nearest hospital outside the jail, in the name of so called threat to security,” it said.
The Bar Association said that it has accordingly decided to take up the matter with the High Court of J&K and New Delhi and seek appropriate directions to the jail authorities for providing necessary canteen and medical facilities to these inmates. The association has also decided to request the Amnesty International, Asia Watch and other human rights organizations of India and abroad to take notice of the happenings in the Central Jail Tihar and impress upon Indian authorities to provide all necessities of life to the Kashmiri prisoners lodged there.
