SRINAGAR In occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Social Forum (JKYSF) has demanded unconditional release of all illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists languishing in different jails of India and the occupied territory. A c – cording to Kashmir Media Service, the JKYSF General Secretary, Advocate Aasif Baba, in a statement in Srinagar said that Kashmir was a disputed territory and all detainees related to the dispute were political prisoners and could not be detained for whole life or treated like criminals. He said that the political prisoners were periodically released in all the disputed regions of the world but the Indian authorities did not pay any heed to the international principles. He maintained that those who had chosen the path of getting right to selfdetermination of the people of Kashmir were neither professional criminals nor had anything to do with terrorism. “They are people with solid ideology and punishing them is clear violation of the international laws,” he added. Advocate Asif Baba demanded unconditional release of all the illegally detained Kashmiri political leaders including Advocate Zahid Ali, Lateef Ahmed Dar, Showkat Hakeem, Mohammad Shafeeq, Javed Ahmed Munshi, Javed Najar and journalist, Aasif Sultan. Meanwhile, the JKYSF Chairman, Umar Aadil Dar, welcomed Advocate Zia-urRehaman of Tral and Aijaz Noori of Pulwama who joined the forum.—KMS
