MIRPUR (AJK): Chairman Democratic Hurriyat Front (DHF), Ch. Shaheen Iqbal while voicing his party’s concerns over the continued detention of Kashmiri leaders and youth has demanded immediate release of all Kashmiri prisoners who have been arrested before and after 5th August 2019.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, DHF chairman said that thousands of Kashmiris including top Hurriyat leaders and youth have been languishing in prisons and detention centers in different parts of India. He said that after the abrogation of article 370 and 35-A, the Indian authorities have illegally arrested over 15000 youth from different areas of the valley. Referring to ruthless suppression of political dissent, Iqbal said that entire Hurriyat leadership was arrested to ensure silence of a graveyard in the valley.
While condemning the detention of APHC vice Chairman Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, he said, Indian government was using colonial-era tactics to choke every dissenting voice in the valley. “Along with suppression of political dissent, the witch-hunt against civil society, journalists, and rights activists has crippled the Kashmiri society”, he said adding that a regime of new laws introduced in the state has left no space for dissent in the region. “Anyone who dares to speak about the brutal suppression is being dubbed as anti-national and charged under sedition laws”, DHF chief said.
Urging world human rights organizations to take effective notice of the worsening situation in the region, he said that it was high time that the world should mount pressure on the Indian government to ensure early release of all political activists and restoration of fundamental freedom in Kashmir.