Srinagar, April 26 (KNS): All Parties Hurriyat Conference today said that it is very concerned about the health reports of Kashmiri political detainees in jails across India as the Covid 19 Pandemic has created havoc.
In a statement issued to KNS, APHC said that as per family sources of prisoners lack of even basic amenities inside the jails has led to serious health problems among the prisoners.
"Quoting family sources of Advocate Shahid ul Islam who is in Tihar jail, APHC said that he is very ill and showing all symptoms of covid, including high fever but authorities are neither getting him tested nor taking him to the hospital," It said.
APHC said that it is extremely worrisome that political prisoners who are also humans could be treated like this, it added.
APHC said that the silence of one and all, including human rights organisations on this issue, has led the authorities to show this indifference and inhumanity towards prisoners.
APHC said that such is the apathy that Mohd Ayaz Akbar who is in Tihar jail, was not released even for a day on parole despite repeated appeals to see his wife suffering from cancer for the past three years, till she breathed her last recently, it reads.
"APHC said that political prisoners, youth, civil society members even female political leaders continue to languish in jails for years together now, without any case and proper judicial trial, with authorities playing with their lives and their health, especially in times of Covid as it is rapidly spreading in jails," the statement said.
Leaders including Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Ahmad, Farooq Ahmad Dar, Aasiya Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi, Nahida Nasreen, Zahoor Ahmed and others are forced to live miserably and among high covid risk to their lives in Tihar jail, Kot Bhalwal jail, Jodhpur jail, Agra jail, Amphala jail, Haryana jail, and other prisons across India
APHC fervently appeals to human rights organisations, civil society members and all those people who have a heart to being focus upon the plight of these prisoners in jails and ensure their release before it’s too late.
APHC also once again asks the Government authorities to release these political prisoners youth and others especially in view of the rapid spread of covid in jails, it said.
APHC also expresses strong resentment over the continued arbitrary house detention of its chairman Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir Moulvi Muhammad Umar Farooq even in the holy month of Ramadan, saying the 21-month-long detention of the Valley's top leader is hurting the sentiments of the people. (KNS)