Srinagar:Democracy and “oppression” can never go side by side, said Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik on Friday.
Meanwhile, a JKLF statement issued to GNS said that party leaders and activists Friday staged a peaceful protest against continuing crackdowns, killings, the spree of arrests and “oppression” unleashed against Kashmiri prisoners.
“On one hand, Indian rulers and their Kashmiri stooges claim and propagate democracy and on the other hand suppressing peoples voices through military and police might is continuing,” he said.
On Kashmiri prisoners, Malik said, “Kashmiris are facing worst apathy in Indian jails like Tihar jail, Mandawali Jail, Delhi and jails of Jammu Kashmir including Udhampur, Kathua, Hiranagar, Amphala, Srinagar Central Jail, Mattan, Baramulla, Kupwara, Kot-Balwal and other incarceration centres.”
He said India being a signatory to the Geneva Convention on prisoners was supposed to adhere to the international law but contrary to this, New Delhi is employing “every oppressive means” to inflict more and more harm to these inmates.
He also condemned the prolonged incarceration of JKLF leaders Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, Siraj Ud din Mir, Zahoor Ahmad Butt, Abdul Rashid Magloo, Ghulam Nabi Kashmiri and Moulana Sarjan Barakati, who are booked under PSA.
“It is the obligation of the international community, human rights organizations, civil society, ICRC and others to intervene to safeguard the rights of these prisoners of conscience and use their good offices to get them released from incarceration,” Yasin Malik said. (GNS)
