Joint Hurriyat condemns charge-sheet on Asiya Andrabi, her associates

Srinagar, Nov 15: Joint Hurriyat comprising of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Muhammad Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik on Thursday said that putting political leaders and activists including women in jails on ‘concocted charges’ and slapping repeated public safety acts (PSA) on political activists to prolong their incarceration is nothing but ‘travesty of justice and democracy’.

Joint Hurriyat in a statement issued condemned the charge-sheeting of ailing women leaders Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen and Fehmida Sofi by NIA, slapping of yet another PSA on Muslim League chairman Masarat Alam Bhat and caging down of hundreds of young and old in nooks and corners of Kashmir valley.

Terming the charge-sheeting of Syeda Asiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen and Fahmida Sofi by NIA as ‘travesty of justice and democracy’, JRL said that dozens of Kashmiris have been arrested by NIA on fictitious charges and put behind the bars for pursuing a political position, which is contrary to that of India.

“Yesterday ailing women leaders Asiya Andrabi, Naheeda Nasreen and Fahmida Sofi who are in NIA custody from last many months have been charge-sheeted by NIA. The charge sheet put forth by NIA against these women leaders is not only concocted but a bundle of lies and sole purpose of this is to prolong the incarceration of these women in resistance,” JRL said.

They said that similarly other arrested people who are languishing in Tihar Jail under same kinds of ‘concocted charges’ and are made to suffer for their political beliefs and endeavors.

Leaders said that “thousands of Kashmiris have been put in jails, interrogation centers and police stations and many of these are being slapped with repeated PSA’s to prolong their incarceration and inflict more and more sufferings to them.”

Terming 37th PSA on Muslim League chairman, Masarat Aalam Butt as another example of ‘injustice and state terrorism’, JRL said that “a political leader is being subjected to chauvinism by illegal means and this is being done by police authorities in the name of peace and democracy, which cannot be termed but as state sponsored violence.”