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Srinagar, July 19, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, the family of a Pulwama man illegally detained under draconian law, Public Safety Act (PSA), expressing concern about his deteriorating health has said that the jail authorities are denying medical care to him.
The family members of Zaheer Abbas, a resident of Inder area of Pulwama, said that he had been in Kathua jail since June. They said that Zaheer was summoned by the Indian police on May 18 and detained. On June 13, he was booked under PSA on allegations of being an over-ground worker of mujahideen and was shifted to Kathua jail in Jammu.
“He (Abbas) was running a hotel in Lassipora industrial area and closed his shop during Ramadan but was summoned by Pulwama police. He was booked in a baseless case and since then is languishing in Kathua jail where his health is deteriorating and even medical care is not being provided to him,” Abdul Ghani, father of the 36-year-old man said.
Abbas is father of four children and the lone bread earner of his family. He was earlier also illegally detained for eight months in Kathua jail in 2017, the family said. “Since the killing of his brother in 2003, detaining my lone son has become a routine for police. He was arrested several times by police and twice booked under Public Safety Act,” Abdul Ghani said.
Abbas’ younger brother, Nisar Ahmed Lone, was a member of Hizbul Mujahideen and was martyred by the Indian troops in 2003 in Bellov area of Pulwama. “A top police officer in Pulwama told me then that ‘your son will be at home by Eid’, but they shifted him to Kathua jail. My son was hardly able to earn to meet the two ends of family, how did he become an over-ground worker? Is it because his brother was a mujahid?” Abdul Ghani asked.
Abbas’ wife, Rozy Jan, said that the education of their children had suffered badly by the imprisonment of her husband. She said, Abbas’ father is suffering from multiple ailments and the family is not in a position to bear the expenses of a required surgery.
However, the father is more worried about his son’s deteriorating health than his own. “We came to know through a family of a person who too is languishing in Kathua jail that the health condition of my son is deteriorating in jail while authorities are not providing him doctor’s service,” Abdul Ghani said, pleading that they want their son be taken, at least, to some doctor.
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