Srinagar, March 06, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the Human Rights Commission has asked the home department and director general of police (prisons) to explain why the prisoners are being shifted to jails outside the Kashmir Valley. The commission sought explanation after the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik filed a petition before the rights body seeking an inquiry into the violation of the rights of prisoners.
The JRL petition said that the prisoners were being subjected to harassment and mental torture with an evil motive. “Some of the persons who have been sentenced to life imprisonment have been shifted to the jails more than 300-kms away from their residences which is a violation of the human rights guaranteed by the judicial pronouncements held by the Supreme Court of India,” said the petition that also mentioned the names of the prisoners shifted.
The petition said that among these under-trial prisoners are 24 youth below 30 years of age who have been falsely implicated in a case as per an evil design which actually is a political vendetta. “The trial of the said case is pending before 4th additional sessions court, Srinagar. It is a well-recognized law that an under-trial prisoner is to be kept near the court where his trial shall speedily be taken up,” the petition stated.
“A person who is on parole has been re-arrested and shifted to outside jail for no fault of his which is again a violation of the basic human rights and also against the judgment passed by Indian Supreme Court,” it added. Meanwhile, following the killing of civilians by Indian forces in Shopian on Sunday, a human rights activist has approached India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene in the matter.
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