Srinagar
Jama’at-e-Islami Jammu Kashmir has expressed deep concern over the pitiable condition of political detainees languishing in various jails in and outside the state, saying they have been deprived of all facilities.
Jama’at in a statement said a number of under-trial prisoners, convicts and detenues have been shifted to the jails outside the valley for no fault of theirs. “They have been subjected to inhuman treatment after a detenue escaped from a hospital. The relatives coming to meet these detainees are only allowed to see them from a distance that they can hardly touch their fingers mutually and this meeting does not continue for more than two to five minutes.”
“On a mere irregularity or error, the detainees are subjected to physical and mental torture and kept under solitary confinement for days together quite thereby violating the basic rights of prisoners. The detainees suffering from various ailments are not given proper treatment and as such endangering their life,” Jama’at said.
“Some political convicts who had already passed their periods of sentences namely Dr Qasim but are still under custody for merely political reasons too have been shifted to Jammu jails away from their relatives to deprive them from meeting one another.”
Jamaat said in Delhi’s Tihar jail, a number of Hurriyat leaders have been detained by NIA on “concocted” grounds just to restrain them from supporting the Kashmir cause. “They have been virtually punished for espousing the genuine cause of Kashmiri people and their incarceration is a suppressive method to force them to give up their commitment to the just cause. They too have been subjected to every kind of humiliation in the jail ignoring their social and political status.”
Those detained in Tihar jail include Shabir Shah, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Shahid Yousuf, Saifullah, Ayaz Akbar, Zahoor Watali and Nayeem Khan.
Jama’at-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir has impressed upon the concerned jail administration to honour the fundamental rights of the political detainees and prisoners as per the international law relating thereto. It also demanded the unconditional release of all political detainees and those convicts who have normally completed their sentences.
