Campaign launched for Shabbir Shah’s release

LONDON: Kashmir Freedom Movement (KFM), UK, has launched a “Citizens diplomacy campaign” for the release of Kashmiri leader Syed Shabbir Ahmed Shah.

In this regard, KFM’s foreign affairs secretary Sardar Aftab Ahmed Khan has drafted a letter and sent to all members so they can individually dispatch it to their respective MPs as a constituent.

The letter states that Indian authorities arrested Shabbir Shah on July 26, 2017 in a fake and frivolous case registered against him in 2005 to malign his political struggle for attaining the just right to self-determination for the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

“Since then he is in unlawful detention and solitary confinement in a 6x6 cell in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail without any recourse to justice. Shah, 66, has serious long-term heart conditions, type-1 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. He has been subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in the prison. His family, friends and loved ones are seriously concerned about his deteriorating health condition in an overcrowded jail riddled with Covid-19 cases.”

It mentioned that Shabbir Shah was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by the Amnesty International during his detention in 1992.

The letter has urged the MPs to speak up in support of the family and a large number of friends of Shabbir Shah living in their constituencies, adding: “We are seeking your help in voicing our serious concerns in the UK Parliament.”