Srinagar: Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Thursday termed the “custodial death” of 66-year-old Ghulam Hassan Malik alias Noor Khan, a resident of Peelipora Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district as a biggest human tragedy.
Paying rich tributes to the courage and patience shown by Malik during incarceration, the JRL said that Kashmiri ‘nation’ will always remember the contributions made by Malik towards the ‘freedom movement’ throughout his life.
The leadership said that the elderly person was slapped with draconian PSA and arrested from his home and later lodged in notorious Kotbalwal Jail where he was denied the medical aid with the result his health deteriorated which later resulted in his death during incarceration. The leadership said that like Malik, dozens of Kashmiri prisoners are being denied the basic medical health facilities as guaranteed by the jail manuals which put their life at a great risk.
The leadership appealed the heads of all rights forums across the globe that include Amnesty International, Asia Watch, and CRC urging them to conduct a thorough visit of various Indian and other jails of Jammu and Kashmir that include Kathua, Jammu, Udhampur, Kotbalwal, and also the Central Jail Srinagar to take the stock of the “ill treatment” meted out to the prisoners. The leadership urged international organisations to build pressure on Delhi to provide the medicines and basic medical aid to the prisoners who are in need of it to prevent further deaths.
The leadership strongly condemned and expressed their resentment over the manhandling of dozens of villagers and vandalising the property worth lakhs in Mochuwara village of South Kashmir’s Shopian district during the nocturnal raid terming it as the ultimate highhandedness and highly undemocratic act that deserves all forms of condemnations. The leadership termed the force’s act of vandalising properties and beating people to the pulp as the “worst form of state terrorism.” They said forces are launching search operations on their choice and thrashing people at their will has become a routine affair in Kashmir now which stands an eye-opener for the world community.