J&K Democratic Freedom Party concerned over the plight of Kashmiri prisoners

SRINAGAR, August 25 (SABAH): Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has expressed serious concern over the plight of Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Indian jails outside Kashmir.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the DFP Spokesman Advocate Arshad Iqbal said that hundreds of Kashmiri prisoners lodged in prisons outside Kashmir have been suffering terribly due to highly unfavorable weather 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”, Arshad Iqbal said, adding that it was quite unfortunate that the Kashmiri detainees have now been barred from their rightful weekly phone calls with family members. 

The new restrictions imposed on the Kashmiri prisoners, he said, have further exacerbated depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder among prisoners living thousands of kilometers away from their families.

“Weekly phone calls with family used to be the only way for Kashmiri prisoners to stay in touch with loved ones who are unable to travel long distances”, Arshad Iqbal said.

Urging international human rights organizations to take effective notice of the woeful plight of the Kashmiri prisoners, the DFP spokesman said that keeping Kashmiri prisoners in far off jails and leaving them to rot in highly humid temperature there was a flagrant violation of the prisoners’ rights.

Voicing his party’s serious concern over the continuous and illegal detention of the incarcerated party chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah and other Hurriyat leaders, he said that the world community must play its due role to help secure early release of Kashmiri prisoners who have been languishing in different jails since past several years.