The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik has been unjustly imprisoned because he fearlessly championed the Kashmiris’ freedom movement and raised his voice against Indian oppression.According to Kashmir Media Service, Yasin Malik has endured years of imprisonment, torture and separation from his family for raising his voice for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.Yasin Malik’s years-long imprisonment in Indian jails have taken a heavy personal toll, keeping him separated from his mother, wife and daughter.

Malik’s years of separation from his family reflects the human cost of prolonged detention faced by Kashmiri Hurriyat leadersYasin Malik’s case raises fresh concerns over India’s treatment of Kashmiri pro-freedom leadership in its prisons International community, particularly the United Nations, must monitor prolonged detentions and rights violations involving Kashmiri Hurriyat leadersThe world community must ensure impartial scrutiny of politically motivated prosecutions against Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) General Secretary Dr Ghulam Rasool in a statement strongly condemned India’s attempts to implicate the pro-freedom leadership of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir in false, baseless and decades-old cases, describing these actions as a systematic attempt to suppress the political voice of the Kashmiri people.

 He said that it was deeply regrettable and alarming that Kashmiri political leaders have already spent three, four, and even more decades of their precious lives in Indian prisons, yet they continue to be subjected to further incarceration and harassment by reviving old cases and initiating fresh proceedings. He said resurrecting such cases after several decades is not justice, but amounts to political vendetta and state repression. 

He said India must understand that imprisoning an entire political leadership cannot extinguish the political aspirations of a nation or silence its demand for the right to self-determination. Attempts to silence Kashmiri leadership only further expose the continuing political nature of the Kashmir dispute, he added. Dr. Ghulam Rasool appealed to the Kashmiri diaspora across the world, particularly those living in the United Kingdom, United States and Europe to raise the ongoing Indian actions against Kashmiri political leaders and political prisoners at every available forum. 

APHC leader Abdul Samad Inqilabi in his statement strongly condemned the Indian judicial proceedings against Yasin Malik who is incarcerated in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, and demanded an international investigation into the cases registered against him. He said Yasin Malik is being targeted under a well-thought-out political agenda, adding Yasin Malik has recently submitted a detailed 25-page affidavit in the Srinagar court, in which he has expressed complete distrust in the Indian justice system.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)