New Delhi, June 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):In yet another attempt to appease the regional political parties of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and gain their sympathies, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has claimed that a committee will be formed by authorities in the territory to go through the list of political detainees on a case-to-case basis and they could be released soon.
Reports in Indian media suggest that Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant General, Manoj Sinha, will constitute a committee which will go through a list of 40 people who are in custody under the PSA. Most of them belong to pro-India political parties. Based on various factors and depending on the feedback from Indian security agencies their release will be looked into.
Although the release of political prisoners was one of the key demands made by various political leaders of IIOJK in the meeting with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the recent move seems to be only meant for pro-India parties whose activists are languishing in jails of IIOJK and India and nothing has been said about the Hurriyat leaders, businessmen and ordinary citizens illegally detained in different jails.
In fact, in the run up to the All Party Meet on 24 June, several political detainees such as Peoples Democratic Party’s Naeem Akhtar and Sartaj Madni were released by India last week and that attempt was also meant to appease the pro-India parties.
Experts and analysts believe that the New Delhi’s move is only meant to set free the pro-India political leadership and India has no plan to release the illegally detained Hurriyat leaders and activists. Thousands of Hurriyat leaders and activists including Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Aasiya Andrabi, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayaz, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Peer Saifullah, Raja Marajuddin Kalwal, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, Ayaz Muhammad Akbar, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Shahid-ul-Islam, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Yousuf, Fehmeeda Sofi, Naheeda Nasreen, Farooq Ahmed Tawheedi, Ameer Hamza, Imtiyaz Haider, Hayat Ahmed Butt, Muhammad Yousuf Mir, Muhammad Yosuf Falahi, Muhammad Rafiq Ganai, Dr Shafi Shariati, businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali, and journalist Asif Sultan are languishing in different jails of IIOJK and India.
Experts say that India’s call to convene this meeting seems to be signal from Modi regime that its hard-line approach to illegally absorb IIOJK in India has failed. On the other hand, they say, New Delhi is still not interested in holding talks with Hurriyat leadership, which represents the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, as not a single Hurriyat leader was invited for the All Party Meet. This seems to be an ill-advised move as Hurriyat can’t be ignored in any dialogue process on Kashmir, they say.
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