Islamabad
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Vice Chairman Abid Saqi Tuesday strongly condemned the decision of the Indian government to extend the period of detention of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) High Court Bar Association (HCBA) President Mian Abdul Qayoom and General Secretary Ashraf Butt and other political leaders under the draconian Public Safety Act.
Mian Qayoom, an aged Lawyer’s Leader who remained president of the HCBA for 21 times, suffering from multiple ailments also having undergone heart surgery; currently lodged in the Tihar Jail, New Delhi, was being punished for his undeterred stance on Kashmir issue. Qayoom was arrested along with 24 other activists following the unilateral abrogation of Article 370 of the constitution by Indian government on August 5, last year, said a PBC press release.
Abid Saqi said the fascist Modi government which was continuously committing atrocities on innocent Kashmiris, had shamelessly denied even medical facilities to the old ailing Mian Qayoom and paid no heed to appeals of senior foreign lawyers including Richard Atkins, QC Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales and Sehona Jolly SC, Chair of the BHRC, expressing their concerns over the detention of Mian Qayoom and other lawyers and political activists and demanding for their release.
He said the PBC severely condemned the continued detention of Mian Qayoom, all other lawyers and political activists and impressed upon international community including the UN, to raise their voice against accesses and brutalities being committed by law enforcement agencies and even army personnel under directions of the Indian government on Kashmiris who were struggling for the right to self-determination.—APP
