On November 27, the Counsel for Shahid Yousuf, the son of United Jehad Council chief Syed Salahuddin who is in the high security Tihar Jail produced a ‘blood-stained’ shirt of Shahid before Patiala Court alleging that his client was ruthlessly beaten up by Tamil Nadu Force guarding the Jail Cells of Tihar.
While confirming it, family members said that Shahid was not only abused but mercilessly thrashed by Tamil Nadu Force inside Tihar Jail.
This opened a can of worms, where the state of all Kashmiris in Jails across India, is being talked about. The photographs of several injured under trials circulated on social media, with reports that Kashmiri inmates were beaten and abused in jails.
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What the court said
The high court called the attack on inmates as “very disturbing”.
Violation of fundamental, human and legal rights of prisoners, who have alleged they were subjected to severe physical torture at the Tihar Jail came under the Delhi High Court’s scanner as it ordered an enquiry into the incident.
“We need to take a call. It (the incident) is completely unjustifiable. If this is the situation in Delhi, what about other places,” a bench of acting-Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar remarked.
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What Mehbooba Mufti said
“Prison is a safest place, such incidents put a question mark.”
Expressing her concern over the reports of Kashmiri inmates being abused beaten, beaten harassed and manhandled, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday spoke to the Union Home secretary Rajiv Gauba and asked him to intervene in the matter.
The Union Home Secretary assured the Chief Minister of a thorough probe into the incident and punishing the culprits for having violated the jail manual.
The Union Home Secretary assured the Chief Minister of a thorough probe into the incident and punishing the culprits for having violated the jail manual.
Violation of fundamental, human and legal rights of prisoners, who have alleged they were subjected to severe physical torture at the Tihar Jail on Monday came under the Delhi High Court’s scanner as it ordered an enquiry into the incident.
What the Hurriyat said
“It is extreme state sponsored oppression and their tall claims and rhetoric about humanity and democracy are a mere hoax.”
The Joint Resistance Leadership on said that the ghastly incident of thrashing of Kashmiri prisoners in the Tihar jail has put the lives of all political prisoners at risk.
Appealing to international organizations including United Nations Human Rights Commission Asia watch and Amnesty International for their cognizance, the leadership stressed to take notice of the inhuman and hostile treatment meted out to detainees lodged in Tihar jail.
The leadership sought help from international agencies and asked to provide suitable treatment to those injured in recent thrashing incident and ensure their security and safety.
JRL while referring to Supreme court ruling, demanded shifting of prisoners, saying detainees are subjected to vengeance, and despite sufficient accommodation in local jails, they are shifted to outside jails and as such their families face immense difficulties to seek meeting with their wards.
“They even ignore the ruling of Supreme Court regarding prisoners wherein it has clearly directed state authorities to lodge detainees adjacent to their home cities,”
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Cases of abuse and unlawful detention in Indian Jails
Recently the Supreme Court of India directed the Union of India to file Status Report on the detention of Pakistani-Pak administered Kashmir and foreign prisoners detained in the Indian jails.
The Supreme Court of India issued this notice on a writ petition filed by Prof. Bhim Singh in person against the illegal, unconstitutional and improper detention/trials of foreign prisoners by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir for the past over 15 years who have been languishing in the Indian prisons including J&K.
Many of the prisoners have completed the respective sentences and many of them have been kept in detention by the J&K Government for years under the detention law in J&K called ‘Public Safety Act’ without trial.
The Supreme Court has been hearing writ petition against the illegal detention of more than 1000 prisoners from Pakistan and its administered Kashmir.
Nearly 700 of them were released by the intervention of the Supreme Court of India which had issued direction to the Union of India and Government of J&K to release all those prisoners from Pakistan, PaK or other countries who had exhausted their respective sentences or who have been detained in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India which commands that no person shall be deprived of his life or liberty without procedure established by law.
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