SRINAGAR In occupied Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has demanded immediate release of all illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists lodged in jails of India and the territory. The APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar deplored that the deadly coronavirus had engulfed the entire world and the governments of the world had taken necessary measures to protect their people but the Indian government was not releasing the Kashmiri political detainees which was condemnable. He said that the freedom-loving people of occupied Kashmir were engaged in a peaceful struggle to secure their birthright to selfdetermination in accordance with the UN resolutions but the Indian forces had implicated thousands of Kashmiris in fake and baseless cases and lodged them in various prisons of India and Kashmir. The detainees included the Hurriyat leaders who have been kept in various jails for years as their illegal detention is being deliberately prolonged on one pretext or the other, he added. The spokesman said that at a time when thousands of people around the world had died due to the coronavirus, it is imperative that the illegally detained leaders and activists should be released so that they could be protected from the deadly virus, which was also their right. He said that the political detainees included Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Aasiya Andrabi, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Dr Muhammad Shafi Shariati, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Dr Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Mian Abdul Qayyum, Muhammad Yaseen Khan, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Yousuf Mir, Ayaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Peer Saifullah, Merajuddin Kalwal, Zahoor Ahmad Vatali, Syed Shahid Yusuf Shah, Abdul Ahad Parra, Muhammad Yasin Atai, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar, Muhammad Rafiq Ganai, Noor Muhammad Kalwal, Sarjan Barkati, Shaukat Ahmad Bakhshi, Muzaffar Ahmad Dar, Abdul Ghani Butt, Hayat Ahmad Butt, Muhammad Yousuf Falahi, Imtiaz Haider, Muhammad Yousuf Butt, Mushtaq Ahmad Hara, Syed Shakeel Yousaf Shah, Manzoor Ahmad Lone, Mushtaq Ajmal, Shakeel Ahmed Butt, Hakeem Shaukat, Fayyaz Ahmad Talaq, Muhammad Latif Dar, Ashiq Hussain Narchoor, Feroz Ahmed Dar, Abdul Hameed Teli, Peer Muhammad Ashraf and Fayyaz Ahmed Zargar. The spokesman appealed to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres and other international human rights organizations to fulfill their moral and constitutional obligations for the release of the illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists.—KMS
