JKCHR to resist Gitmo-type prison in Kashmir

Islamabad: Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR) has condemned the agreement of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti with Indian Home Ministry to build a notoriously known Guantanamo Bay type high security prison in Srinagar, to lodge dissenting voices of Kashmir away from community, says a press release.

Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani, secretary general of the JKCHR, said that at a time when the whole world and in particular the US people have turned against the US managed prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Indian plans to seek the cooperation of Srinagar-based Kashmiri government to build a Guantanamo Bay type high security prison to imprison the people of Kashmir is exceptionally alarming and every sane element in India, Pakistan and at the international level should condemn the Indian move and intervene to stop the Indian draconian move in the interests of peace and justice.

The JKCHR secretary general has said that it is a clever move to mislead the people that the new prison would house convicted terrorists or those facing trial in terror cases. India is faced with a legitimate armed and political resistance in Kashmir and those who cross over from other parts of the state are not Pakistani’s but dissenting state subjects. These Kashmiris have a right to enter the state under the UN Resolution of 21 April 1948 and at the same time Kashmiris have a right to undo Indian occupation, using any means available.

Dr. Nazir Gilani said that even if there be some Pakistani’s or any other nationals who support the resistance against the Indian occupation could not be lodged in such a specially built prison. Indian government does not have an authority to use Kashmiri soil to build structures like Guantanamo Bay to torture and to imprison.