Detained Hurriyat leaders exposed to virus threat: APHC

By APP
April 17, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) said on Thursday the lives of the illegally detained Kashmiri leaders were at a high risk due to the spread of Covid-19.

According to the Kashmir Media Service (KMS), an APHC spokesman also said the announcement by the Indian occupation authorities of releasing the Kashmiri detainees was just an eyewash.

He lamented that barring a few Hurriyat associates, thousands of Kashmiris including top Hurriyat leaders — Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Masarrat Aalam But, Mian Abdul Qayoom, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Altaf Ahmad Fantosh, Ayaz Akbar, Pir Saifullah, Aasiya Andrabi, Fahmeeda Sofi, Nahida Nasreen and Nayeem Ahmad Khan — were still under illegal detention.

The APHC spokesman maintained these incarcerated Hurriyat leaders were being deprived of basic human facilities as well as medical care. He pointed out that they had been put in such conditions in jails that they can easily be infected by coronavirus. Separately, Chairman Karwan-e-Islami International Allama Ghulam Rasool Hami has said the Indian troops, in the garb of lockdown due to coronavirus, were arresting elders and youths from mosques and streets in occupied Kashmir.

In a statement issued in Srinagar, Allama Hami condemned the arrest of Kashmiri elders and youths, saying the entire world was fighting coronavirus pandemic but the Indian government was spreading division in the name of religion and hatred, the KMS reported.

“Blaming Muslims for spreading coronavirus is a proof of Indian hatred for the Muslims,” he said, adding Muslims were being attacked in India and occupied Kashmir.

Allama Hami urged India to implement the demand of the United Nations General Secretary António Guterres and release Kashmiri political and religious leaders in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

He deplored that the Indian government, instead of protecting the people from coronavirus, was massacring the people of the held territory and urged the international community to take notice of the Indian state terrorism.