By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Human Rights Activist Mushaal Hussein Mullick Friday called for an unconditional release of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IOJ&K) leadership from jails to ensure safety of their lives amid the coronavirus pandemic. Addressing the one-day seminar titled ‘Humans without human rights in IOJ&K’, the wife of Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik underlined the need for unconditional release of all the prisoners, locked up in Indian jails including Kashmiri women, children and elderly citizens.
The conference, arranged by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to mark ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’, was attended by politicians, journalists, foreign press officers, human rights activists, lawyer and others. “At the time of corona when the world was depopulating the prisons and other populated areas, India is making more and more concentration camps everywhere and over-populating the prisons which is in total contrast to the global demands concerning the corona,†she noted.
“Kashmir, which has always been under the Indian lockdown, is now under the ‘double lockdown’ and even in the time of corona, there are numerous killings and rape cases,†she said, urging the international media to extensively sensitize the world about Indian brutalities in the occupied valley, especially under the pretext of so-called security.
Sharing the statistics with the participants, Mushaal Malick said: “There are 16 rape cases during the COVID-19 lockdown in Kashmir and 64 cases of child molestation.†This number were very marginalized as people and authorities in Kashmir had not been allowed to gather and share such data, she added.
“Rape is being used as a weapon of war and India is systematically using this to suppress freedom struggle of Kashmiri people,†she remarked. The human rights activist said there was an immense trauma from which the Kashmiri women went through every day as they strived to support their families in legal issues.
“Children are being tortured and pelleted,†she said while sharing the recent incident of the killing of a four-year boy in the south Kashmir. Citing a report, she said some 600,000 children were orphaned which is more than population of the state like Maldive. “80 per cent of those orphans have quitted their education,†she added.
“If you want a safer region then you must, at least in our lifetime, raise the voices for legitimate causes of Kashmiris and Palestinians,†Mushaal said while addressing to the world community. Calling for peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue, she said, “Its an ideal opportunity for the world to focus on victims and to expose the fascist face of India.
She also recalled the recent standoff between Pakistan and India after the Pulwama attack. “The whole world could be engulfed by the war between two states… so there is need to take ownership of Kashmir issue as a global citizen.†She linked the regional prosperity with peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue.
Mishaal said her husband, who was top leader of the IOJ&K, had been in the death cell of 5X7 and was being toruted for the last one and half years. The activist said the IOJ&K leadership should be released at the earliest and engaged in dialogue on Kashmir along with other stakeholders.
