Urgent Intervention Sought to Press for Release of Kashmiri Political Prisoners from Indian Jails amid COVID-19 Tsunami
Dr Tedros Adhanom
Director General
World Health Organization
Geneva
SUBJECT: Urgent Intervention Sought to Press for Release of Kashmiri Political Prisoners from Indian Jails amid COVID-19 Tsunami
The Legal Forum for Kashmir (LFOVK) writes as concerned human rights-cum-humanitarian organization, to urge upon your office to take immediate action to address the plight of political prisoners of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who are languishing in various jails of India amid the COVID-19 tsunami which has shaken the Republic of India.
This letter is to request your immediate intervention in the matter to release these political prisoners who have been jailed just for seeking the UN-granted right to self-determination in at least 15 resolutions passed by the UNGA and UNSC since 1948.
It has now been twenty months since the Republic of India ordered a military siege and annexed the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir by unilaterally revoking the so-called special provision for the disputed territory under the Indian constitution.
The military establishment of India has responded with an increasingly brutal crackdown defined by some of the worst human rights violations: unlawful and arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, and extrajudicial killings. This includes the bloodiest Cordon and Search Operations (CASOs). Kashmir’s health care workers and Journalists, in particular, have been systematically targeted by the occupying army.
The Indian military’s CASOs are also generating a public health crisis with regional and international impact. By launching military operations and by persecuting the civilian population, the Indian military has critically impeded Kashmir`s normal health care system — including its COVID-19 testing, treatment, and immunization efforts.
The most pressing need right now is the protection of Kashmiri political prisoners who have been lodged in different jails across India. We urge your office and other humanitarian organizations to immediately launch a global effort to offer additional protection, support, and services to Kashmiri political prisoners.
Since Kashmir is a cold-to-medium-weather region, the incarceration of Kashmiri political prisoners in India makes it doubly difficult for them to be jailed at one place in hot temperatures.
Now, India is caught in a massive spike of coronavirus with close to 300,000 cases and more 2000 casualties every day. It has put at risk lives of Kashmiri political prisoners who have no criminal case against them but have been denied basic/fundamental rights because they advocate fulfillment of the UN-granted right to self-determination for Kashmiris.
Mr Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Masarat Alam Bhat, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah, Raj Mahraj-uddin-Kalwal, Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, Ayaz Akbar, Farooq Ahmad, Shahid-ul-Islam, Syed Shakeel, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Zahoor Ahmad Watali, Shahid ul Islam, Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Among these political prisoners, the Republic of India has detained three female Kashmiri political prisoners including Asiya Andrabi, Nahida Nasreen, and Fahmeeda Sofi.
Kashmir’s resistance icon Syed Ali Geelani has been jailed in his home since October 2010 which has had a worse effect on his health. His situation demands utmost care at the level of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Most of these Kashmiri prisoners are already undergoing various ailments. Some of them have lost eyesight and hearing ability.
Despite a series of guidelines issued by the WHO, the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and UN human rights experts on the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in detention centers, conditions in Indian prisons continue to deteriorate.
The Republic of India has ignored such directions for the safeguard of prisoners particularly Kashmiri political prisoners.
The so-called “precautionary measures” are likely to provide no protection in confined spaces and it seems that India will persist with its strategies, resulting in harm to political prisoners.
Importantly, you must continue to speak out — loudly and often — against the human rights violations that the Indian-occupying military is committing against the people of Jammu and Kashmir, including political prisoners languishing in different jails, and call upon the government of India to:
i. Release all Kashmiri political prisoners, especially those who have been arrested without charges or on spurious charges of “sedition” often simply for expressing political dissent;
ii. Release the most vulnerable and more susceptible to the disease, including children, women, older persons, prisoners with underlying health conditions;
iii. Stop abuses that expose incarcerated prisoners to the virus;
iv. To release on parole or interim bail for such period as may be appropriate to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
Sincerely,
Justice (R) Ali Nawaz Chowhan
Chairman, LFOVK.
Judge at The Hague,
Chief Justice of the Gambia
Justice Pakistan Superior Judiciary
Co-Chairman UNESCO
First Chairman NCHR, Pakistan
Advocate Nasir Qadri
Director LFOVK
Advocate J&K High Court
Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir
Cc to:
1-Ms. Leigh Toomey, UN Special rapporteur on Arbitrary Detention
2-International Committee of the Red Cross
Regional Delegation for Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Nepal
3-OIC Human Rights Commissioner
4-International Commission for Jurists
5-Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH)
6-President, Cansuyu Derneği
7-Economic and Social Research Centre (ESAM) Turkey
