Kashmiri political prisoners’ lives in danger: National Front

Calls for urgent release of all political prisoners

Srinagar: Jammu Kashmir National Front has expressed serious concern over the health and safety of the incarcerated party chairman Nayeem Ahmed Khan and other Kashmiri prisoners who have been languishing in jails in different parts of India.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday the JKNF spokesman while highlighting the plight of Kashmiri prisoners said that health conditions of Kashmiri detainees lodged in different jails outside Kashmir have deteriorated to alarming levels due to the lack of health care and other basic amenities. Referring to the declining health condition of the illegally detained party chairman Nayeem Ahmed Khan he said that it was quite unfortunate that the jail authorities were reluctant to provide adequate health care to him and other prisoners.

Voicing his party’s grave concern over the inhuman treatment meted out to Kashmiri prisoners, the spokesman called upon international human rights organisations to break their deafening silence over the issue. The spokesman pointed out that the international human rights groups’ indifference towards the prisoners’ miseries has been one of the major reasons behind their continued detention. “Despite present health crisis thrown up by the pandemic, the Indian government is not even ready to release Kashmiri prisoners on the parole”, he said.

The JKNF spokesman, regrettably noted that most of the Kashmiri leaders including Nayeem Ahmed Khan, political activists, youth, traders and even many women activists have been languishing in different jails for the last several years despite the fact that no evidence whatsoever has been produced against them.

Seeking an immediate release of political prisoners, including Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Muhmmad Yasin Malik,  Massrat Alam Butt Altaf Shah, Pir Saifullah, Shahidul Islam, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Ahmed, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Aasiya Indrabi, Fahmeeda Nasreen and others the JKNF spokesman said that since government has failed to provide any evidence against them there was dire need that these prisoners should be released on parole to the sufferings of the families who were unable to meet their loved ones in far-flung jails could be alleviated.