AJK President call for immediate release of Kashmiri prisoners

ISLAMABAD, April 16: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has demanded immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri leaders and thousands of political activists detained in jails, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and Asiya Andrabi.

He said that these guiltless detainees should be released during the holy month of Ramadan and before the Eid-ul-Fitr so that they could celebrate the holy festival with their families and relatives.

In a statement on Saturday, the AJK President said that it is a matter of grave concern for us that after abolishing Kashmir’s special status on August 5, 2019 thousands of innocent Kashmiris were detained and they have not been released even after two years.

He said the majority of those arrested were youths who had been imprisoned simply because the Indian government feared they would rise up against its illegal actions and will oppose their anti-Kashmir measures.

The State President said that during the infamous military operation in the name of house-to-house searches in Occupied Kashmir, military officers and personnel mistreat women, elders and children in an unethical manner. “The young people are killed, wounded or arrested and put in prisons and concentration camps where they were subjected to the worst inhumane treatment so that they would give up their support for the freedom and right to self-determination movement and mentally accept Indian slavery.

Khan said that despite this cruelty, oppression and inhumane treatment by India, the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir are not ready to compromise on their right to freedom or to show any weakness. President Sardar Masood Khan appealed to the people of the entire Jammu and Kashmir to unite to snatch the right of freedom from their common enemy India and turn their differences towards India instead of targeting each other.