SRINAGAR: Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair who was released on bail after almost a month told Article 14 in an interview that the Kashmiri youth who were lodged in Tihar revealed to that nobody speaks up for Kashmiri Muslims.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair had told the interviewer that “there were youngsters from Kashmir, four or five kids [meaning, young men] in my cell in Tihar, first-year or second-year students who had been in jail for more than two years just for sharing a post on Telegram and Facebook. And the first thing they told me was they were happy at the outrage over my arrest but there was nobody speaking up for Kashmiri Muslims, not even me.”
Kashmiri youths in jail for 2+ years for allegedly sharing a post on Telegram/FB told me they were happy with outrage over my arrest, but said nobody spoke up for Kashmiri Muslims in jail, not even me. (Humare liye koyi nahi bolta/Likhta, aap bhi nahi).https://t.co/73PXi3kkLG
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 3, 2022
“They told me there were around 33 of them in Tihar jail, and around 150 in Agra and many of the other UP jails. They were all arrested after the abrogation of Article 370, all students,” Zubair said to the interviewer.
“That was heartbreaking. Comparing it to my case, I still feel I am lucky. I know I was jailed because of politics, because of outrage by the right-wing, but I still feel after going inside that there are a lot of other people, 1000s of activists, reporters, and others who’ve been in jail for no fault of theirs. I’m glad I am outside, but there are many other people who, unfortunately, are still inside the jail,” he added.
Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police on 27 June for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through one of his tweets.
On July 20, a bench of justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and AS Bopanna ordered disbanding of the SIT and transfer of all the cases to Delhi, saying there was “no reason or justification for the deprivation of his (Zubair’s) liberty to persist any further.”
The SC bench also refused to restrain Zubair from tweeting in the future as sought by the UP government.
