Srinagar, January 14, 2016 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has said that the Kashmiri prisoners lodged in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail are deprived of all facilities and are denied the right to a speedy trial. The HCBA in a report released following a visit by its 5-member team to Tihar Jail on January 11 said that the Kashmiri detainees were also being discriminated against. The team comprised the HCBA President, Mian Abdul Qayoom, Muhammad Ashraf Butt, Arshad Andrabi, Muhammad Shafi Reshi and Nasir Qadri.
“The condition of the Kashmiri prisoners lodged in different jails of Tihar is very bad as they have been deprived of all the facilities by the jail authorities,” the report said. “There is no TV in wards where they have been kept and even the facility of radio or newspapers is not available to them, though the facility is available to other prisoners lodged in the same jail,” it stated. The prisoners, the report said, had the facility of a canteen but it has been taken away from them.
“The detainees are taken to the courts but their cases are adjourned for months altogether. In the NIA (National Investigation Agency) court, proceedings are to be conducted on a daily basis but the Kashmiri prisoners are denied the right by the courts without any reason,” it added.
The HCBA report said that the Kashmiri inmates were discriminated against in the jail. “While as all other prisoners are free to talk to their families seven times a week, Kashmiri prisoners are allowed to do so only twice a week and that too for 5 minutes only and are made to pay a heavy amount for such phone calls,” the Bar said and announced that it would take up the matter of these prisoners before the High Court to ensure that they get a fair deal at the hands of the Tihar authorities.
The team visited the jail in pursuance to a direction by the High Court of the occupied territory on December 28, last year, to visit Tihar and interact with the detainees and under-trial prisoners and convicts belonging to Jammu and Kashmir, so as to provide necessary legal aid and assistance to them.
“However, when the order was served by the HCBA team on the Director General Prisons Delhi, he endorsed the same to the Law Officer of the Prisons Department who made the team wait in his office for about three hours and then allowed them to meet only 5 under-trail prisoners of Kashmir lodged in jail no. 1, 3, 4, 8 and 9.
Though the court order in unambiguous terms provided for the meeting of Bar members with all the detainees/under-trial prisoners, convicts whose number is roughly 30, the jail authorities allowed the team to meet only 5 under-trial prisoners on the ground that they have instructions not to allow any Kashmir lawyer to meet any Kashmiri under-trial prisoner, convict or detainee,” the report said.
It said that the HCBA team was first allowed to meet Rafiq Ahmad Shah and Ghulam Muhammad Butt who along with seven other Kashmiri prisoners are lodged in jail no. 8 and 9. “After meeting the aforesaid two persons, the Bar team requested the Superintendent of the jail to allow them to meet other 7 prisoners of Kashmir as well but he refused to give them any such permission,” the report maintained.
The two prisoners told the team that all the Kashmiri prisoners have been kept in high security wards and they have no facility of radio or newspaper available to them, the report said. They said that even the canteen facility which was earlier available to them has been taken away by the jail authorities and that the Judges are fixing their cases after every two months on the grounds that they have lot of other work to do, the reported quoted them as saying. They also stated that in cases where final arguments have been heard, prosecution has been allowed to lead evidence to prolong the agony of the prisoners, the report pointed out.
“The detainees stated that they have filed bail applications before the trial courts but no orders have been passed on those applications and even their request for release on furlough and parole has been rejected,” the report said. According to the HCBA, similar ordeals were narrated by the prisoners including Mohammad Shafi Shah (jail no. 1), Tariq Ahmad Dar (jail no. 3) and Muzaffar Ahmad Dar (jail no. 4).
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Phone: 92-51-4435548, 4435549
Fax: 92-51-4861736