Muzaffarabad: Chairman Pasban-e-Hurriyat Uzair Ahmed Ghazali has said that International human rights organizations should play a role for the immediate release of Kashmiri prisoners imprisoned in Indian jails.

According to a statement issued here on Wednesday, he said that the government of India is making the lives of thousands of families miserable by keeping Kashmiri prisoners in jails.

He maintained that a photo exhibition titled “Free Kashmiri Prisoners” campaign will be conducted soon to highlight the plight of Kashmiri prisoners and their release.

He said that international human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Asia Watch, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the International Rescue Committee, the European Union and other humanitarian organizations around the world should help the thousands of people abducted from the internationally recognized disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir by the Government of India.

“Kashmiri citizens who have been arrested by the Indian government before or after 2019 under the worst black laws AFSPA, POTA, TADA, UAPA, PSA have been shifted to different Indian jails far away from their homes so they could not be able to meet their relatives.

Ghazali said that at present around 25 Kashmiri citizens are serving life imprisonment while around half a dozen Kashmiri prisoners are facing the death penalty.

He said that Kashmiri leaders and citizens have been arrested by the Government of India because they have been demanding the freedom, self-determination and basic human rights of the Kashmiri people.

Uzair said that many Kashmiri political leaders including Mussarat Alam Bhatt, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Yaseen Malik, Dr. Qasim Faktu, Asia Andrabi, Fehmida Sufi, Naheed Nasreen, Zafar Akbar Butt, Naeem Ahmed Khan, Dr. Hameed Fayyaz, Ayaz Akbar, Saif-Ullah Peer, Muhammad Yousuf Falahi, Bilal Ahmed Siddiqui, Bashir Ahmed Irfani, Mushtaq-ul-Islam, Shahid-ul-Islam, Shahid Yousuf, Shakeel Yousuf, Noor Muhammad Fayyaz, Ghulam Qadir Butt, Muhammad Shafi, Mairaj-ud-Din, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Muzaffar Ahmed Dar, Mian Abdul Waheed, Nazeer Ahmed Ronga, Muhammad Ashraf Butt, Zahid Ali, Sarjan Barkati, Shabroza Begum, Hayyat Ahmed Butt, Abdul Ahad, Saleem Nanjhi, Bashir Ahmed Qureshi, Khurram Pervaiz, Asif Sultan, Sajjad Gul, Irfan Mairaj including many other lawyers, social workers and journalists are in different Indian jails.

He said that the Kashmiri prisoners are facing the harshest conditions in the jails because of being Kashmiris.

Uzair said that no treatment facilities are available for Kashmiri prisoners even for those suffering life-threatening diseases.

“Despite the expensive and longest journey, Kashmiri citizens are being deprived of meeting their loved ones”, he lamented.

He further said that the need of the hour is to raise the voice effectively within the state and across the world for the release of Kashmiri prisoners.

Ghazali called on the Kashmiri citizens on both sides of the ceasefire line, Kashmiris living all over the world and the government of Pakistan to play their role in shaking the conscience of the world for the release of Kashmiri prisoners in Indian jails.

He announced that soon a photo exhibition of prisoners will be held in the capital to draw the attention of the international community and human rights organizations to the release of Kashmiri prisoners.