Srinagar
Over 12 thousand Kashmiri detainees including a large number of teenage boys are presently languishing in different jails of occupied Kashmir and inside India. According to a report released by Kashmir Media Service, Thursday, of them 900 are detained under draconian law, Public Safety Act.
At least, 600 of the detainees are imprisoned in jails inside India. Some of these detainees include Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Dr Hameed Fayaz, Aasiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, Fahmida Sofi, High Court Bar Association President, Mian Abdul Qayoom, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Aiyaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Peer Saifullah, Mehrajudin Kalwal, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Qazi Yasir Ahmad, Moulana Mushtaq Veeri, Ghulam Ahmad Gulzar and Muhammad Ahsan Untoo.
PSA was also recently invoked against regional political leaders including Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. The detainees have no access to medical facilities and proper food. They are also not presented before courts on scheduled dates. Often the goons associated with the Hindutva ideology subject the detainees to brutal torture.
The Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Council for Justice, Advocate GN Shaheen, in a media interview in Srinagar said that all these Kashmiris were detained on fake charges.
Indian police during house raids arrested five youth in Gundipora and Warihama areas of Badgam district.
An Indian solider ended his life by taking some poisonous substance during duty at his camp in Ashmuqam area of Islamabad district.
This incident raised the number of such deaths among Indian troops and police personnel in occupied Kashmir to 446 since January 2007.
In Washington, ahead of US President, Donald Trump’s visit to India later this month, four top US senators have expressed concern about the continued internet curbs and detention of political leadership in occupied Kashmir.
A letter written by senators, Chris Van Hollen, Todd Young, Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that the Indian government has imposed the longest ever internet shutdown, disrupting access to medical care, business and education for seven million people in the territory.
The letter points out that hundreds of Kashmiris including key political figures remain in detention. The senators also expressed concern over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in India.—KMS
