The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday stopped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from taking out a march in Srinagar seeking Kashmiris imprisoned elsewhere to be released or brought back to J&K.
PDP leader and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti led the march, but right outside the party office, the police stopped them and prevented them from proceeding.
Speaking to the press later, Mufti urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to form an all-party delegation to visit jails outside J&K and check on the condition of Kashmiri prisoners. Mufti also urged Abdullah to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek the release of these prisoners or to facilitate their return to jails in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Let’s keep politics aside, let’s keep politics for elections, but for god’s sake, release the innocent prisoners,” Mufti said, adding, “I request Omar sahib, not as a politician but as a mother, a sister and a daughter, that he should talk to the Home Minister (Shah) to bring the prisoners back to prisons in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Urging the formation of an all-party delegation, or at least a group of ministers, she said, “The delegation should visit every jail where prisoners are lodged so that they can check their condition… If an all-party delegation is not possible, let him set up a group of two-three ministers who visit all the jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.”
Mufti said prisoners from J&K were suffering in jails outside the Union Territory. “There are many innocents among them (prisoners). I don’t think anybody’s crime has been proved. They are all just accused. There is no convict as yet,” she said, adding, “Despite that, they are suffering in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir. I know a case from Pulwama where a youth has been in jail for the last 10 years and only half of the witnesses have been presented so far.”
She assured full support to Chief Minister Abdullah in any effort to bring back prisoners to the Union Territory.
