SYED ALI SAFVI
SRINAGAR, May 18: The visiting two-member Amnesty International (AI) team, comprising Indian nationals BJ Batra and Gopala Krishnan, has asked the separatist and mainstream politicians not to pre-judge their visit.
"We are here as Amnesty International representatives and not as citizens of any country," Batra told media persons outside Mirwaiz’s Nigeen residence here today. He said that they want all stakeholders, including Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman, Syed Ali Geelani, to cooperate with them.
“We are here to talk to all stakeholders with open mind,” Batra said.
The team today called upon chairman Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman JKLF, Mohammad Yasin Malik, chairman JKLF (R) Farooq Ahmad Dar aka Bitta Karate, chairperson APDP, Parveena Ahangar, and Dr Hameeda Nayeem, wife of imprisoned senior separatist leader, Nayeem Akhtar.
The delegation called on chairman Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at the latter’s Nigeen residence at around 12:00 PM. During the two-hour long interaction, Mirwaiz apprised the delegation about human rights violations, custodial killings, draconian laws like AFSPA, PSA, enforced disappearances, and Kashmiri people’s struggle for right to self determination.
Mirwaiz told the delegation that senior separatist leaders - Shabir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Khan, and number of people who were detained under public safety act (PSA) were unlawfully and unconstitutionally kept under continuous detention. He told the team that despite court orders the government has not released the incarcerated leaders.
Casting aspersion on the role of judiciary in the state, which he claimed to be “partial”, Mirwaiz alleged that the judges “keep national interest in consideration instead of human rights violations”.
He claimed that the judiciary had never taken strong notice of human rights violations in the state.
Mirwaiz told the delegation that the human rights violations had taken alarming proportions in the state, adding that there was no freedom even for offering prayers.
Talking to a local news agency, Mirwaiz said that he had asked the AI team that it should take serious steps in identifying the cases of custodial disappearance, and for revocation of draconian laws in the state.
The team assured Mirwaiz that it would investigate incidents of human rights violations in toto.
According to a spokesman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz told the delegation that India was suppressing and subjugating innocent Kashmiris to strengthen its “illegal occupation”.
“Mirwaiz told the delegation that during 20 years of Kashmir conflict over one lakh innocent Kashmiris were killed, thousands were maimed for life, thousands of women were widowed, thousands of innocent denizens of the valley were killed in custody, and numbers of Kashmiri women were molested by security forces in the valley,” the spokesman said.
Mirwaiz expressed optimism that the Amnesty International would play an impartial and significant role and would stress upon India to put an end to unabated human rights violations in the state.
Senior Hurriyat Conference (M) leader, Shahid-ul Islam, was also present on the occasion.
Later, the two-member AI team also met chairman Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Mohammad Yasin Malik, at Maqbool Manzil here.
Malik briefed the delegation about the plight of those women whose husbands disappeared in army and police custody.
“Those women are in a dilemma to call themselves married or widowed,” he told the delegation. “Their children have lost the parental care, but they can not be referred to as orphans as no body knows the whereabouts of their fathers.”
Malik told the delegation that if the chief of Indian Army staff and other leaders claim that there are only a few hundred militants present in Jammu and Kashmir then what is the justification of the presence of lakhs of troops in the state.
Referring to AFSPA, PSA and other draconian laws, Malik told the delegation that there was no moral justification of these laws in democratic setup. He urged upon the delegation for influencing New Delhi to revoke AFSPA in the state.
Malik also apprised the members about his Safar-e-Azadi campaign.
Earlier, the team drove to the office of breakaway JKLF (R) group, headed by Farooq Ahmad Dar aka Bita Karate, at Barbarshah here.
JKLF (R) senior vice chairman, Javed Ahmad Mir, senior leaders Rasikh Khursheed Dar, Wajahat Qureshi, Shafat Jan Shangloo, and Mohammad Rafiq Bhat were present on the occasion.
The JKLF (R) leaders briefed the team about unabated human rights violations in Kashmir. The team was told that Kashmir imbroglio was the only reason for HR violations committed by Indian security forces in the state.
The Amnesty team also met APDP chairperson Parveena Ahangar in her office, where the latter detailed them about the fate of the cases of disappeared persons and talked at length about the sufferings of the families. She informed that even approaching the courts had brought no justice and maintained that her organization, comprising of victims, was solely fighting for one issue.
“We only want to know the truth about our missing sons. Where did they vanish in custody of security forces? We want to know what happened to them,” she is reported to have told the AI team.
Later in the day, the AI team also met Dr Hameeda Nayeem, wife of incarcerated separatist leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, at a local hotel here.
Hameeda said that the main focus of the team was on preventive detention.
“I told the delegation that Nayeem Sahab has been served PSA thrice in one year and three months,” Hameeda told Kashmir Times. “I also briefed them about his deteriorating health.”
Stating that Nayeem has been put on drugs for life long, Nayeema told Kashmir Times that PSA has been used as instrument of torture and vendetta against her husband, Nayeem.
“Every time he (Nayeem) is arrested he is taken to Kathua jail. It seems as if Kathua jail has been specially made for him,” she said.
She said that the AI team had assured her that it will take up the issue with the government.
According to reports, the team also met People's League leader Farooq Ahmad.
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