KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Scores of families of members whose beloved ones have been lodged in different Jails of Jammu including Kot Balwal, Udhampur and Kathua on charges of anti-India activities Thursday expressed anguish and concern over what they termed as “prejudiced attitude” of authorities of Jammu jails towards Kashmiri detainees, terming it “violation of human rights”
They alleged that Kashmiri prisoners mostly youth are being ill-treated and harassed and even deprived of medical facilities. Scores of youth from Kashmir Valley who have been booked by the government under draconian Public Safety Act have been languishing in Kathua and Kot Balwal Jails. The majority of detainees are from South Kashmir.
“I was shocked to see the condition of brother at Kathua Jail. The Jail authorities have been refusing to provide him any medical treatment though he is suffering from different ailments,” Gulzar Ahmed Itoo whose brother Hilal Ahmed was arrested by police from Rohmu village of Pulwama district told local news gathering agency CNS.
Some of the relatives of other detunes said that the conditions in jails, where Kashmiri detainees are lodged, are extremely insanitary and unhealthy. “Inmates there are being subjected to the worst rights abuses and no stone is being left unturned to distress the Kashmiri detainees physically and psychologically. They have been lodged and kept with those criminals who are detained on the charges of criminal and immoral activities,” they said.
They alleged that the behaviour of jail officials are flouting the jail manual arbitrarily.” Inmates are not even permitted to accept the food that their visiting family members are getting along with during permitted visits. Jails officials have made the arbitrary manual which has taken heavy toll on inmates’ health,” the family members of Kashmiri detainees said.
They appealed to the human rights bodies to take cognizance of the condition of Kashmiri inmates and take effective steps to save them from “atrocities being perpetrated on them.”
