An incarcerated senior leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, has termed the Indian government’s move to host a conference of Indian judges in Srinagar yet another attempt to mislead the international community on the ground situation of illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Shabbir Ahmed Shah in his message from New Delhi’s Tihar jail said the Indian judiciary has always been biased against Kashmir and its people has no moral justification to hold such an event in the occupied territory, reported Kashmir Media Service.
He said, hosting the so-called national conference on Kashmir’s soil is tantamount to rubbing salt on the wounds of Kashmiris. He pointed out that the Indian judicial system has not only failed in providing justice to the Kashmiris but also to operate in accordance with international human rights standards.
The APHC leader said hundreds of cases relating to the involvement of Indian forces’ personnel in the incidents of violence including torture, rape, extrajudicial killing, and arbitrary detentions have been pending in courts but people at the helm of affairs refuse to participate in investigations and prosecutions. “Hundreds of magisterial probes have been ordered in Kashmir in the aftermath of violent incidents that shook the valley. But none of those reports have been made public, and not a single army man has been convicted,” he said.
Shabbir Shah referred to Indian Supreme Court’s indifference towards hearing the petitions challenging Article 370 and said the pleas has been pending in the apex court but the judges who work on whims and fancies of the ruling party have been pushing it under the carpet. “By failing to ensure effective remedies to the victims of human rights abuses in Kashmir, India violates its international obligations,” he added.
The APHC leader also highlighted the plight of the Kashmiri prisoners saying that the ignoring of the rights of these detainees in IIOJK also depicts the failure of the Indian judiciary. He said that hundreds of political activists booked under trumped-up charges continue to rot in Indian jails. He said that JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik’s conviction was yet another proof of how Indian courts were being used as a state instrument to suppress the Kashmiris. He said that the judicial murder of Shaheed Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru was a blot that the Indian judiciary cannot wipe off its face.
India’s judiciary, Shabbir Shah said, has been virtually unable to provide any recourse for the victims of human rights violations or relief for their families. He said the judiciary, which has been hand-in-glove with the BJP government, was directly responsible for prevailing uncertainty and chaos in IIOJK.
