JKPL seeks AI's intervention for release of Kashmiris

Senior APHC Leader and Acting Chairman Jammu Kashmir Peoples League, a constituent of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza has urged the Amnesty International to help in release of Kashmiris including profreedom leaders and activists. Waza in a statement issued in Srinagar said that at least 1600 Kashmiris including profreedom leaders and activists leaders had been arrested and lodged in the jails within and outside Kashmir for demanding Right to Self Determination. He said, by virtue of the international law, the arrested Kashmiris are political prisoners not criminals. He said that New Delhi was keeping the leaders behind the bars to suppress the ongoing liberation movement. This has exposed India’s tall claims of being a democratic country. The condition of many detainees is serious. Many of them have been denied medical care and are being provided with substandard food, he said. Waza maintained that when Indian All-Party delegation recently visited Kashmir there were assurances that the detainees would be released. However, after the delegation left, hundreds of more people have been arrested and booked under various acts, he deplored. He pointed out that the occupation authorities had been shifting the detained Kashmiris to jails in far off places within and outside the Kashmir. I make a fervent appeal to the Amnesty International and representatives of Red Cross in Kashmir to ensure immediate release of the Kashmiri detainees, he said.