Jammu Kashmir High Court Bar Association Thursday while “strongly condemned the unabated arresting of youth and putting them behind the bars without consideration to their age, health and other factors asked the International Community to get out of their deep slumber and for the sake of humanity, rescue the people of Kashmir from the onslaught of Indian ruthless forces who are engaged in a systematic genocide of people of Kashmir.”In an Executive Committee meeting held here on Thursday, it was stated that besides killing and blinding people, more than 7,000, old and young Kashmiris have been arrested and about 800 of them have been detained under PSA and lodged in far flung jails outside valley and only during past 24 hours 37 persons mostly young have been arrested and lodged in police stations and interrogation centres, where they are ruthlessly being beaten, causing injuries of grave nature on them. These forces have not even spared the “Ashoora processions” and besides resorting to tear gas shelling to break the processions, have arrested dozens of mourners to prevent them from reaching their destinations, which is utterly shameful.
The members also condemned the continued house arrest and detention of SAS Geelani, Moulvi Mohammad Umar Farooq, Mohammad Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Asiya Andrabi, Advocate Zahid Ali Lone, Advocate Mohammad Shafi Reshi and many others and the treatment meted out to them both inside the outside the jail. While referring to Asiya Andrabi it was stated that she has been kept in an unhygienic isolated cell at District Jail Baramulla, in which there are no sanitation facilities available and even restrictions have been imposed on her family members to meet her. It was also stated that Superintendent District Jail, Baramulla, is so communal and cruel that immediately after her joining in the jail, she made recommendations for the transfer of nine under trial prisoners belonging to Kashmir province, whose cases are pending in Sessions Court Baramulla, to District Jail Poonch and the Director General of Prisons, without examining as to whether he has the power to order the transfer to District Jail Poonch, obliged the Superintendent District Jail Baramulla by issuing order dated 29.08.2016, where under all the nine undertrial prisoners have been shifted to District Jail Poonch, making their production in Sessions Court Baramulla impossible in future.
It is very important to mention that under domestic as well as international law, the right to a fair and a speedy trial is a fundamental right and the violation of such a right, by the jail authorities to the undertrial prisoners of Kashmir province, amply shows as to how much biased they are towards them and how they want to put them to unnecessary inconvenience for the belief they hold in regard to the Kashmir dispute. The members as per a statement to news agency CNS also condemned the firing of pellets on two brothers Azhar Ahmad Thoker and Ubaid Ahmad Thoker, who were going for fishing at a water body at Gooripora, quite near their residence at Noorbagh Srinagar, as a result of which Ubaid an 18 year old student, received pellet injuries in his right eye, throat and face, which has made his future bleak. Ubaid is right now admitted in ward no. 8 of SMHS hospital Srinagar where he is undergoing treatment for his eye injury.The members also condemned the statement of RSS Chief, Mohan Bagwat, about giving citizenship rights to west Pakistan refugees and stated that these refugees have no right to claim and/or can be granted any citizenship rights in the State of J&K and that if Mohan Bagwat is really concerned about them, he should ask BJP Govt. to settle them somewhere in India and not to force them on the people of Kashmir, in any manner whatsoever. (CNS)