Humayun Aziz Sandeela
India has been using the tools of oppression and ill-treatment to spread a sense of fear among the unarmed and innocent people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) for the past over seven decades. Thousands of Kashmiris including innocent youth, members of civil society, journalists and Kashmiri leaders remain incarcerated in Indian prisons, several of them at unrevealed locations and aloof from their families. The Indian forces still operate in the illegally occupied territory with complete impunity under draconian laws like Public Safety Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Several senior Kashmiri leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, are also under house detention, while other prominent leaders, such as Aasiya Andrabi, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Masarrat Aalam Mutt are in New Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail.
Andrabi is the founder of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Nation) that has been declared an outlawed organization by India for mobilizing women against Indian rule. Holder of master’s degree in Arabic literature, and bachelors in biochemistry, Andrabi shot to prominence in the late 1980s, when she launched a campaign against social evils under the banner of Dukhtaran-e-Millat. For the very first time, she was arrested in 1993 and since then has faced many detentions. She was taken into custody in October 2016. Though she was released a few months later but was kept under house arrest only to be arrested again and shifted to Amphala Jail Jammu in 2017. Last time, she was arrested along with her associate, Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmeeda Sofi, in April 2018. In July 2018, they were shifted to the punishment or penitentiary ward of Tihar Jail, where two prominent Kashmiri leaders – Muhammad Maqbool Butt and Muhammad Afzal Guru – were hanged in 1984 and 2013 respectively by the Indian authorities for their active role in the ongoing Kashmir freedom struggle. At this ward prisoners face a strict schedule, including forced physical labour. India did all this to break her will.
Andrabi like other Kashmiri leaders has been illegally arrested over malicious, false and fabricated charges by the Indian government through invoking draconian laws promulgated in IIOJK.
Imprisonment and torturing of Kashmiri leaders on the premise of their political ideology and struggle against illegal Indian occupation can be termed a true reflection of the extremist mindset of the RSS-BJP regime that has no respect for the human rights of the Kashmiri people.
However, the latest order by a Delhi-based kangaroo court about framing of charges against Aasiya Andrabi and her two associates Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmeeda Sofi under infringement is indicative of Modi-led fascist Indian government’s evil designs.
Aasiya Andrabi has been charged for waging war against India whereas the actual reality is that New Delhi has always used its courts to victimize the individuals like Aasiya Andrabi, who have been challenging India’s illegal occupation of their motherland.
Aasiya Andrabi’s pro-freedom activities have continuously unnerved Indian authorities. While in order to break Aasiya Andrabi’s will, her husband, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, has been accorded imprisonment until death. However, being an iron lady of Kashmir, Aasiya Andrabi despite suffering from multiple ailments has refused to submit to India’s machinations and is courageously braving illegal detention in Tihar Jail.
India has continuously denied permission to the International Red Cross, Amnesty International or other human rights organizations to visit these jails and observe their pathetic condition and this illogical denial by India speaks volumes about the plight of Kashmiri prisoners.
The intolerant Hindu jailers subject the Kashmiri prisoners including Hurriyat leaders, activists and youth to inhuman torture in Tihar, Jodhpur, Agra, Haryana and other jails in India. The repressing measures against the detainees are a serious violation of Geneva Convention on Prisoners Rights which provides that persons deprived of liberty for reasons related to the conflict must also be treated humanely in all circumstances. In particular, they are protected against murder, torture, as well as cruel, humiliating or degrading treatment and the United Nations and international human rights organizations must impress upon India to release these political detainees, restore full Internet facility in the entire IIOJK, repeal PSA and other draconian laws, and withdraw troops from the illegally occupied territory.
Although the international community, notably the United Nations, and human rights and humanitarian organizations have been expressing concern over the Indian government’s repressive measures in the illegally occupied territory, they need to pay heed to the plight of the illegally detained Kashmiri leaders and raise voice for their immediate release.
The dire human rights and humanitarian scenario in IIOJK, exacerbated by India’s illegal and unilateral actions since 5 August 2019, has been amply exposed by the international human rights organizations and international media.
The Indian government cannot suppress the legitimate aspirations of the people of IIOJK without facing international censure and its evil machinations against people like Aasiya Andrabi and her associates will not yield the desired results.
[The author is Sub-Editor at Kashmir Media Service and can be reached at [email protected]]
