Citing the death of jailed separatist leader Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai due to COVID-19, former chief minster and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to release all political detainees and allow them to return home.
“I write to you at a time when the entire country has been engulfed by a deadly second wave of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the health infrastructure has collapsed and the harrowing images of stranded COVID-19 patients grasping for breath have shocked us all,’’ the letter written by Mufti said.
The letter said the sense of helplessness is so acute and pervasive that the living are suffocating to death, while the dead suffer indignity even after losing to this virus.
“Families have watched on helplessly as they struggle to even accord their loved ones the proper dignified last rites of passage. One doesn’t wish to politicise the human tragedy that has befallen us,’’ it said. “It is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of caste, colour, religion, or social status and affects everyone.”
She said the only silver lining in this tragic time is how Indians, cutting across religious and regional lines, are coming together to lend each other a helping hand.
Pointing out that there have been reports of prisoners dying due to COVID-19 owing to the lack of medical attention, she said at a time the system is struggling to cope with an unprecedented crisis there are chances that prisoners may be neglected.
“As for Kashmir, it is no secret that hundreds, or maybe thousands of detainees and political prisoners arrested since 2019 continue to languish in jails both in and outside J&K,’’ it said. “ Most of them are detained under preventive laws and don’t face any prosecution. Many continue to be held even after courts granted them bail.”
She noted that most countries have released prisoners on parole in view of the alarming COVID-19 crisis and said a democratic and civilised country like India shouldn’t drag its feet and must release these detainees immediately so that they can return home at a time when life feels so threatened. “I hope you will give due consideration to this matter and order their release.’’
