Says India should learn a lesson from other world countries
Pays eulogizing tributes to PL chairman Shaheed S Hameed
Islamabad: Reiterating has call for urgent release of all illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activist lodged in different prisons of India and the territory senior vice chairman Jammu and Kashmir National Front Altaf Hussain Wani has said urged the world human rights bodies to mount pressure on government of India to release Kashmir prisoners langusihg different jails in and outside the Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Indian government’s deliberate act to keep Kashmiri prisoners in highly congested prisons is not only immoral and illegal but a serious violation of the basic human rights”, the JKNF leader said in a statement issued here on Sunday. “At a time when prison decongestion measures are adopted and appreciated worldwide to prevent outbreak of corona pandemic the government of India has brazenly refused to heed the world human rights organizations’ calls for the release of Kashmiri prisoners”, Mr. Wani said. The illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists, he said, have been lodged in far-flung and highly congested prisons in India. “Even the family members of the detainees are not in a position to visit them in jails because of the persisting lockdown”, Wani said adding that at this very crucial time Indian government should learn a lesson from other world countries who have released prisoners in view of the COVID-19 pandemic on humanitarian grounds.
Referring to the prevailing situation in the held territory of Jammu and Kashmir the JKNF leader said that amid the corona crisis human rights situation in the valley has deteriorated even further. Citing a recent incident in the valley Wani said that occupation forces have crossed all limits of cruelty and barbarism in Kashmir. “Killing and maiming of Kashmiri youth has become no norm in Kashmir”, he said adding that situation in the region has worsened so much and so that Kashmiris cannot even mourn the death of their beloved ones. “The right to mourn too has been snatched away from Kashmiris”, Wani said. “What is even more barbarous is that Indian occupation forces have been denying families the right to participate the last rites of their kin killed during encounters.”
On the other hand Wani has expressed serious concern over the lack of Corona-virus safety kits in the valley. “The shortage of essential supplies and especially the non-availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), have made it extremely difficult for doctors, paramedics and healthcare providers to combat corona in the valley”, Wani said adding that it was quite unfortunate that The Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Kashmir, has stopped taking samples from potentially infected persons in the Valley after a senior health official bypassed directions and diverted a Srinagar-bound consignment of five boxes carrying 5,000 test kits to Jammu..
Wani pointed out there was a serious shortage of medicines and medical equipment like ventilators in the hospitals. Referring to a media report he said Kashmir has 1 ventilator for 71000 people, a doctor for every 3900 patients. “To the contrary India has deployed 1 gunman armed to the teeth for every 10 Kashmiris”, the JKNF leader said.
Meanwhile, JKNF spokesman in a separate statement paid eulogizing tributes to veteran Kashmiri liberation leader and chairman of Jammu Kashmir Peoples League S Hameed who was gunned down by Indian forces in mid 90s.
