UN chief adds voice to calls for release of Kashmiri prisoners in IoK

NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has called for a very close look at the continued confinement of Kashmiri prisoners in IoK amid growing cases of the deadly Coronavirus.

The spokesman to Secretary General, Stephane Dujarris in a media briefing in New York said that all member states need to take care of prisoners during the pandemic.

As for prevailing situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir, he said the UN Secretary General believes in political solution to the issue.

Last week, Pakistan had expressed deep concern over “continued restrictions” in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) despite so many confirmed COVID-19 cases and two deaths from the disease reported in the region.

“Thousands of Kashmiri youth, members of civil society, journalists and Kashmiri leaders remain incarcerated in Indian prisons, many of them at undisclosed locations and away from their families,” Foreign Office spokesperson Ayesha Farooqui had said in a statement.

“The Indian forces continue to operate in the occupied territory with complete impunity under draconian laws such as Public Safety Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA).”

She lamented the senior Hurriyat leadership is under detention at homes or in different prisons.

Earlier, six leading international human rights organizations while expressing concern on a very poor state of affairs in Indian jails, have jointly demanded the immediate release of Kashmiri prisoners.