AJK president demands release of Kashmiris in India to protect them from Covid-19

MUZAFFARABAD, April 25: While expressing deep concern over the humanitarian crisis in India due to the coronavirus outbreak, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President, Sardar Masood Khan has demanded the immediate release of thousands of Kashmiri politicians and political activists detained in cramped and congested jails in India and occupied Kashmir.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, the President said, “We are deeply concerned over the devastation caused by the second wave of Coronavirus in neighboring India. We also appreciate the Government of Pakistan and the Edhi Foundation for offering help to the Indian government to manage this crisis,” Masood said.

The State President said that besides being concerned over the dangers posed by the pandemic to the lives of Indian citizens, we are more concerned about the lives of thousands of innocent Kashmiri people who have been detained in various Indian prisons for several years and are faced with the danger of an outbreak of the virus because of unhygienic conditions in the prisons.

He particularly called upon the Indian government to immediately and unconditionally release Chairman Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Asiya Andrabi, Musarrat Alam Butt, Ayaz Akbar, Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmida Soofi to save their lives. Besides, he demanded an end to the detention of All Parties Hurriyat Conference leadership particularly Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, and also expressed deep concern over the fast deteriorating health of Asiya Andrabi in Tihar Jail of Delhi.

Referring to the situation that erupted out of coronavirus in India, the AJK president said that the people of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir express solidarity with their Indian counterparts particularly those helpless people who are faced with the deadly virus in towns and villages.

Welcoming the decision by Edhi Foundation Pakistan chief Faisal Edhi to provide medical relief to the Indian people, Sardar Masood Khan said that the Kashmiri people whether they are settled in occupied territory or Azad Jammu and Kashmir, believe in humanity and high human values, and despite suffering at the hands of successive Indian governments for the last more than 70 years, they are as worried as the Indian citizens themselves are over the humanitarian crisis in India.
He said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir, whether they are living in Occupied Kashmir or in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, believe in humanity, human compassion, and high human values ​​, and yet they are as saddened by the devastation in India as the citizens of India themselves are because that is what humanity demands.