The All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) leader, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar has urged the world leaders to help resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Mehmood Ahmed Saghar in a letter addressed to leaders of P5 countries, highlighted the woeful plight of the Kashmiri prisoners and India’s repressive policies to stifle democratic dissent in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Referring to brutal policies of the Indian government, the memo said, “Kashmir has been turned into a virtual prison where essential fundamental freedoms such as right to peaceful assembly, right to freedom of opinion and expression and right to peaceful protest remain largely suspended”. He said that since 5th August 2019 the Indian government had arrested thousands of Kashmiris on trumped-up charges.
“Resistance leaders, including Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Masarrat Aalm Butt, Aasiya Andrabi and Nayeem Ahmed Khan have been booked under infamous laws and left to rot in jails outside Kashmir,” the letter said.
The rights groups, he said, are being targeted for their work and cooperation with the UN and other international organizations in exposing human rights violations being committed by Indian troops in the territory.
“The arbitrary arrests of Kashmiri civil and political activists by the authorities spotlight the Indian government’s broader clampdown campaign to stifle democratic dissent in the region,” he added.
Saghar pointed out that the Indian government was using judiciary and other repressive state apparatus to enable complete silence in Kashmir by suppressing every voice of dissent. “Recently an Indian court had issued an order regarding framing of charges under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against Shabbir Ahmed Shah and other leaders”, he said.
Highlighting the plight of illegally detained APHC leader, Shabir Ahmed Shah, he said that Shabbir Shah had been suffering from multiple chronic ailments. “Being a diabetic and heart patient, his health condition in the prison has deteriorated to dangerous levels due to the lack of medical care”, he added.
He appealed to the world leaders to use their good offices to help secure an early release of Shah and other political prisoners.
In a separate letter to the OIC Secretary General, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar thanked the Muslim body for renewing solidarity and reiterating its full support to Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle for right to self-determination.—KMS
