Held Kashmir HCBA concerned over plight of detainees

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has expressed serious concern over the plight of Kashmiri detainees lodged in various jails. A team of lawyers from HCBA headed by Advocate Aijaz Bedar visited various jails in Jammu region, District Jail Kathua,  Sub Jail Hira Nagar, District Jail Amphalla, Jammu Central Jail Kot Balwal Jammu and District Jail Udhampur, on November 25 and 26, a spokesman for the Bar said.

“The team members interacted with the detainees and found them in miserable condition. The trauma starts right from the first day. During the first 15 days of their lodging in the jail they are confined in solitary cells. Their clothes are taken off and they are subjected to ill treatment. In Central Jail, Kot Balwal, Jammu, their position is worse.

“The Bar Association has prepared a detailed report in respect of each jail which will be produced before the High Court and circulated to the press shortly,” he said.

“The lodging of detainees of Kashmir province in far flung areas of Jammu region is causing immense hard-ship and torture to their friends, relatives and family members who face great difficulty in going to their place of lodgment and in meeting them.

In the cases where the order of detention expires the detainee is not released because his order of detention without any notice to him is extended by the detaining authorities. Even after the quashment of orders of detention the detainees are taken to JIC Jammu where they are kept in unlawful detention for days together. “The fate of these detainees is decided by the intelligence authorities of JIC Jammu. “Those of the detainees who have been detained on the ground of stone pelting are kept separate irrespective of their age,” he said. Meanwhile, High Court Bar Association has condemned the killing of Sajad Ahmad Malik in a fake encounter.