Islamabad: The Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) has sought the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Michal Bachlet’s urgent intervention in securing early release of under-trial Kashmiri leaders who have been languishing in Tihar Jail for the last several years.
In a letter addressed to Ms. Bachlet the KIIR chairman Altaf Hussain Wani while expressing his serious concerns over the illegal and continued detention of prominent Kashmiri leaders including Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah and several others said that trio have since long been persecuted for their expression of their conscientiously held political beliefs and for raising the banner of revolt against injustices and indiscrimination meted out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir at the hands of occupation authorities.
Highlighting their life long struggle for emancipation and empowerment of Kashmiri people he said. “It was quite unfortunate that the trio had to spend a major portion of their lives in the Indian jails, detention and interrogation centers just for raising their voice for voiceless Kashmiris, which is unfortunately deemed as the biggest crime in the occupied Kashmir”.
These leaders he said have been persistently advocating for a just and peaceful settlement of Kashmir dispute through peaceful means of dialogue and diplomacy. “During their years’ long political struggle they have endured trials and tribulations, imprisonments and detentions in pursuit of their peoples’ fundamental rights”, he said adding that this was the reason they were being victimized and made to suffer in jails despite suffering from acute ailments far away from their homeland, where they could neither be easily accessed by their family members nor their party workers.
He said that the continuous detention has taken a heavy toll on their physical and mental health. “There are reports that the trio have been kept 6×8 prion-cells in abysmal conditions are being denied their rights including proper food and right to receive proper medical care, which constitutes a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law and other human rights treaties”.
Wani urged the madam commissioner to use her good offices to pressurize the government of India to ensure safety and early release of the incarcerated leaders and other political activists who have been languishing in various jails in and outside the occupied territory over the past several years.
