DFP seeks early release of Kashmiri prisoners, condemns house detention of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq 

SRINAGAR, Dec 26 (SABAH): Voicing its serious concern over the continuous and illegal detention of the incarcerated party chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah and other Hurriyat leaders, the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party has urged the world human rights organizations to play their much needed role to help secure early release of Kashmiri prisoners who have been languishing in different jails since past several years. 

In a statement issued on Monday, DFP Spokesman Advocate Arshad Iqbal said that hundreds of Kashmiri prisoners lodged in prisons outside Kashmir have been suffering due to highly unfavorable conditions and lack of basic amenities including access to clean and drinkable water, hygienic food and medicines.

“Many of them have developed acute ailments due to limited access to food, sunlight and medical care”, Iqbal said, adding that it was quite unfortunate that the Kashmiri detainees have now been deprived of their rightful medical treatment.

The lack basic amenities to Kashmiri prisoners, he said, have further exacerbated depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder among the Kashmiri prisoners held in jails thousands of kilometers away from their homes.

Urging international human rights organizations to take effective notice of the woeful plight of the Kashmiri prisoners, the spokesman said that it was high time that the the rights bodies should visit jails to take stock of the Kashmiri prisoners’ conditions at notorious Tihar jail and other prisons.

The DFP spokesman also expressed his party’s concern over the continued house detention of veteran Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Dr. Umar Farooq and termed his detention as a violation of basic human rights.

The spokesman, while seeking early release of all illegally detained Kashmiri prisoners, said that the Indian government was using arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions as a tool to suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate political aspirations.

Stressing the need for early and amicable settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute, the DFP leader said that the unresolved dispute has been the main cause and consequence of rights violations in the region.