Hailing the good-will gestures by both India and Pakistan to release the destitute prisoners from their respective jails, All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman, Syed Ali Geelani on Wednesday said that the mutual well-wishing in the month of Holy Ramadan should be a permanent feature of the bilateral relations of both countries.
He expressed his high hopes that as the important parties to the Kashmir dispute both countries should use this well-wishing attitude, in the first instance, to release all the prisoners belonging to Jammu and Kashmir, languishing in Indian jails.
Lamenting on the plight of Kashmiri prisoners at the hands of barbaric jail authorities in and outside Jammu and Kashmir, Hurriyat chairman reiterated his stand that Kashmir is a purely political and humanitarian problem which is in dire need of an early resolution for prosperous South Asia.
“The mutual well-wishing gesture to release all the prisoners must include those Kashmiri prisoners languishing in the state and outside in Indian jails,” Geelani said.
Taking a dig on the reluctance of India, not to allow the International Red Cross, Amnesty International or other human rights organizations to visit these jails and observe the pathetic condition inside, the Hurriyat leader said that the illogical denial by India speaks volumes about the plight of Kashmiri prisoners.
Citing the delaying tactics to prolong the detention of such prisoners by the Indian judiciary which tantamount to the brazen denial of justice, the veteran pro-freedom leader said that those incarcerated on fabricated and flimsy grounds face the hardships of unfair-trail in the respective courts of Law. “Without any hearing on the fixed dates, new dates at long intervals is fixed to add ordeal to the accused prisoners. There are hundreds of instances where, bail, detenue’s basic right is also denied for years together. Life imprisonment on the basis of political vendetta has become a routine matter in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Making a fervent appeal to both the countries, especially India to shun its stubbornness, Hurriyat chairman said that let the two nuclear neighbours of South Asia turn a new leaf in their bilateral relations to sit together along with the people of Kashmir and resolve of Kashmir issue peacefully in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the Jammu and Kashmir