Free prisoners and stop walking with the rabbits and hunting with the hounds
When the Mughal emperor Jahangeer was mesmerized by the natural beauty of Kashmir, he uttered this famous couplet, “if there is paradise on earth, it’s here it’s here it’s here!” This couplet later became the touristic epitome of Kashmir, whenever the beauty of Kashmir is described in poetry. Nature has endowed Kashmir with exotic beauty, which is reflected in its picturesque landscapes, lush green forests of Chinar, deodar and pine trees, beautiful rivers and waterfalls, snow covered mountains and a range of flora and fauna. It was an abode of peace and tranquility for the visitors of the whole world. But the things changed, when British left subcontinent without considering the future of 10 million people of land locked Himalayan state. Once known as the paradise of Asia has been turned into a beautiful jail, with a heavy military concentration on both the sides of border. It has earned a title, the most militarized area of world and a flash point between the two arch rival nuclear armed neighbors. Every inmate of this unfortunate part of the world is undergoing through trauma and turbulence. At every step hapless Kashmir’s are being subjected to humiliation and harassment on the name of security. In the recent public upsurge, when the volcano of resentment against the state as well as centre exploded on the streets of valley, all the hypothetical theories and assumptions fall apart that Kashmir conflict is just an economical and administrative problem. Till yesterday, those political pundits were analyzing the issue through economical prism interestingly are now acknowledging and realizing that the Azadi sentiment has penetrated into the deep psyche of people and it’s very difficult to bring back them from that obsession. In order to counter this popular sentiment the authorities are using heavy handed tactics against those who participated in the sporadic mass protests. According to an unofficial report more than 1500 hundred people among them lot of teenagers have been detained under the controversial Public Safety Act. Most of the detainees both trialed and under trial are languishing in different jails in and outside state, where they are tortured, maltreated and deprived of all basic facilities according to the different media reports. The release of a Kashmiri aeronautical engineer after completing his term of five year imprisonment shows how the space is shrinking for a Kashmir youth inside the state as well as outside the state. It took five years to Indian judiciary to decide that the unfortunate student is innocent and was implicated on flimsy grounds by the Delhi police. He is not the alone Kashmiri, who faced the judicial wrath from the deity of democracy but there are hundreds of illegal Kashmiri detainees, who are rotting in different notorious jails of India without any proper trial. The way youth have been implicated in false and fabricated cases and political prisoners are being detained under the PSA again and again, shows that the centre is following the stick and carrot policy in the valley. Recently the Amnesty International urged the state to revoke the act as soon as possible and can’t continuously violate India’s International commitments to human rights. Despite the court orders and prolonged strikes by lawyers the prisoners are not released due to that the families are suffering economically as well as psychologically. It would have been a great CBM on the part of authorities to win the hearts and mind of the people if they have released all detainees without any delay but instead of that people are regularly arrested on the name of security threat. The so called main stream political parties and the moderate faction of Hurriyat have never taken up this issue seriously and have confined themselves to the press releases. On the other hand the octogenarian leader, time and again have made his intentions clear that all political or non political prisoners should be released immediately and has launched a district wise public campaign to press for the release of illegally detained Kashmiris in various Indian jails. However he has been barred so for by the authorities to undertaking such political venture by putting him house arrest, which clearly shows the dialogue rhetoric kicked off by the three musketeers is just a part of delay and divide tactics on the part of Indian Government.
