Raise issue of Kashmiri prisoners with Amit Shah, Mehbooba tells Omar

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Monday urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to raise the issue of Kashmiri prisoners—lodged in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir—with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

She suggested that the Chief Minister should lead an all-party delegation to various prisons across the country where detainees from Jammu and Kashmir are being held, to assess their condition.

“Omar should take an all-party delegation—we would also like to be part of it—to visit different jails where prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir are lodged and examine their plight,” the former Chief Minister said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a protest by her party in Srinagar.

Addressing PDP workers during the protest, she said thousands of prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir are being held in jails both within and outside the Union Territory.

“Many of them are innocent and have been jailed without proper reason. I request the Chief Minister to raise this issue with the Home Minister. I also appeal to the Home Minister to release the innocent detainees. We have no information about the condition of those who are imprisoned in jails outside J&K. These are children of poor families,” she said.

“If their parents cannot visit them, how can they fight their legal battles?” Mehbooba asked.

She alleged that while authorities have granted remissions to criminals, rapists and gangsters, similar concessions have not been extended to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We are in the opposition, and we tried to introduce a resolution in the Assembly to shift these prisoners back to J&K, but it was not allowed,” she said, adding, “Poor families in J&K are suffering while their loved ones remain imprisoned in far-off locations.”

She reiterated her call for action: “If possible, an all-party delegation should visit these jails and meet the detainees. If the government has an issue with that, at least send your ministers to assess the situation and then take up the matter with the Home Minister, so that these prisoners can be brought back to Jammu and Kashmir.”

Earlier, police foiled the PDP’s protest march from its party headquarters near Sher-e-Kashmir Park in Srinagar. A large contingent of police personnel prevented the protesters from marching forward.

Mehbooba condemned the action, stating the protest was meant to be peaceful. “The way we were stopped today, had the police and intelligence agencies shown the same urgency in catching those behind the Pahalgam attack, a war would not have started with Pakistan,” she said.

Playing politics a shame: Mirwaiz

Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday appealed to political and social groups in Kashmir to jointly strive for the release of prisoners, saying playing politics on this humanitarian issue will be a shame. “Efforts to highlight the plight of the thousands of Kashmiri prisoners languishing in jails in the Union territory and across India, and for their relief and release is the moral responsibility of all Kashmiris,” Mirwaiz said in a post on X. He said a joint effort in this regard by all is the need of the hour “if we really want to help them”. — PTI