SRINAGAR:In the first move of its kind, separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have moved the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) over the plight of the Kashmiri "political" prisoners in two prisons, including Tihar Jail.
Although the separatists outfits have their legal cells, this is for the first that the top leadership has directly approached the SHRC.
"This is to bring to your kind attention the suffering and plight of Kashmiri political inmates languishing in the Tihar and Kathua jails," they said in an application to the SHRC.
"In the former (Tihar), the Kashmiri inmates are subjected to inhuman deprivation. Medical treatment, for those who require it, is lacking. The inmates are deprived of contact with their near and dear ones and also other basic needs," they said They alleged that the Kathua jail has become a "torture chamber" where Kashmiri inmates are deprived of human contact for many months.
"This amounts to punishment beyond prison time and is inhuman," they said.
They alleged that a large number of undertrials were cramped in unhygienic conditions while they were provided substandard food.
"Kashmiri prisoners are kept with hardened criminals in cramped prisons which poses life threat to them," they alleged.
The separatists asked the SHRC to "look into these grave violations and issue instructions to restore dignity of Kashmiri political prisoners".