Terms media policy 2020 as an atrocious assault on media
Srinagar: Expressing serious concern over the plight of Kashmiri detainees languishing in different jails in and outside the occupied Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir National Front has reiterated its demand for the early release of Kashmir in the wake of fast spreading Corona-virus in India.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday a spokesman of the party (JKNF) said that the Kashmiri prisoners detained in highly congested jails in India were at high risk for corona-virus. He said that despite repeated requests for release of political prisoners by the International human rights organisations the Indian government’s deliberate act to keep prolong detention of prisoners was not only immoral and illegal but a serious violation of the basic human rights.
Referring to the continuous detention of the incarcerated party chairman Nayeem Ahmed Khan the JKNF spokesman said the illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists have been lodged in far-flung and highly congested prisons in India. He said that even the family members of the detainees are not in a position to visit them in jails because of the persisting situation. He said that in addition to Hurriyat leaders Indian authorities have detained a large number of Kashmiri youth after 5th August 2019 when Kashmir’s autonomy was withdrawn by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.. The youth arrested on trumped up charges, he said, have been booked in jails in central Indian states where their families cannot reach easily. The policy of booking youth in far-flung prisons he said was a deliberate attempt to penalize the youth and their families who have expressed concerns that the jails were overcrowded and that their children were vulnerable to getting infected with the coronavirus due to unhealthy conditions in the jails.
The spokesman urged the international human rights organizations to mount pressure on Indian to help release illegally detained Kashmiri prisoners, who have been languishing in different jails for last several years.
Hitting out at Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) government over new media policy the JKNF spokesman said that the new Media Policy-2020 was akin to suppress the voices of dissent in the region.
Terming it as yet another attack on journalists and the freedom of press, he said that the media policy was a malicious attempt to bring down the free-media and journalists who played crucial role in exposing Indian brutalities and bringing Kashmir into international limelight despite a suffocating military siege and communication blockade imposed by the government of India after 5th August 2019.
Urging the international community to take effective notice of the Indian highhandedness, the spokesman said that after wreaking havoc on the lives of people the government of India was now hell bent on silencing the media to ensure a grave-yard silence in the region. The media policy 2020, he said, was a reflection of colonial mindset, which amply demonstrated that Indian rulers and policy makers were still in the grip of a colonial hangover.
