Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, testifying the apprehensions of the Kashmiris about their near and dear ones languishing in Indian jails of getting infected with coronavirus, Zahoor Ahmad Butt, the brother of prominent martyred Kashmiri leader, Muhammad Maqbool Butt, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Zahoor Ahmad Butt who belongs to Trehgam, Kupwara, has been detained under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA) since 2018. The relatives of other Kashmiri prisoners detained under PSA have raised questions about their safety as well.
Sheroz Ahmad, superintendent of Islamabad Jail, said a sample taken from Butt had been sent for COVID-19 testing on July 6, after he developed a mild fever and cough.
“His report arrived on July 10, showing that he had tested positive for the virus. After this, we took samples of 350 persons, including 200 jail inmates, for COVID-19 testing,” Ahmad told the media.
Zahoor Ahmad Butt is the brother of Muhammad Maqbool Butt, who was hanged by India in Tihar jail in 1984 and buried there.
Members of Butt’s family said they had been informed by the jail authorities on Friday morning that he had not been feeling well and had been taken to the district hospital in Islamabad.
“When we got there, we were shocked to learn that he had tested positive for COVID-19. We couldn’t meet him because he had been quarantined,” his nephew Zahid Mazoor Butt said.
“The high court quashed his detention order in 2019, but he was booked again under the PSA,” said Zahid.
When news spread that Zahoor Butt had been infected with the COVID-19 virus inside the jail, the families of other PSA detainees lodged in jails within and outside Jammu & Kashmir began to worry.
“My brother and cousin have been lodged in jails in Uttar Pradesh for the last 11 months,” said Amir Yosouf of Bonabazar, Shopian.
“After the COVID-19 outbreak, we submitted representations to the home department, the legal services authority and the prisons department to release them, but they did nothing.—KMS
