Incarcerated Kashmiri leader Ashraf Sehrai dies in Indian custody

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: A senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Chairman Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, has died in Indian custody in occupied Jammu. According to the Kashmir Media Service, Sehrai was booked under the draconian Public Safety Act and taken to Udhampur Jail in Jammu on July 12, 2020. His condition deteriorated in jail and on Tuesday he was shifted to a hospital in Jammu where he died on Wednesday. He was nearly 80 years old. Sehrai was suffering from multiple diseases and was not provided with any medical treatment during his incarceration. His family members were kept unaware of his condition.

Throughout his life he worked as a lieutenant of Syed Ali Geelani, and was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami. His son, Junaid, was killed by Indian troops in an operation in May last year.

The APHC on Wednesday strongly condemned Sehrai’s custodial death as a “sheer act of deliberate custodial killing for which sole responsibility lies on the Modi-led fascist regime”. In a press release, APHC Vice Chairman Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar denounced the “ruthless behaviour and barbaric attitude of Indian imperialism towards the freedom loving leaders kept in solitude in various jails of India, without medical facilities and other basic amenities of the jail life”.

He also appealed to the freedom-loving people of Kashmir to observe a complete general strike on May 6 (today) to record protest against the “custodial killing of the veteran Hurriyat leader”.

Former occupied Kashmir chief minister and President Jammu and Kashmir People Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti in her condolence message said: “Like him, countless political prisoners and other detainees from J&K continue to be jailed purely for their ideologies and thought process.”

She added: “In today’s India one pays a price with his life for dissent. The least GOI [Government of India] can do in such dangerous circumstances is to immediately release these detainees on parole so that they return home to their families.”

Pakistan National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of Hurriyat leader Ashraf Sehrai. “He dedicated his life for Kashmir’s self-determination. Many more Kashmiri leaders are at risk in IIOJK. It is India’s responsibility to release all those detained on political grounds to create conducive environment.”

Jammu Kashmir National Conference (JKNF) also expressed its “deep sense of shock and grief” over Sehrai’s death.

Meanwhile, Mishal Malik, wife of imprisoned Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik, urged world human rights bodies to take immediate action for ensuring that all political prisoners should be released for the safety of their life and India should provide all emergency medical facilities to increasing coronavirus patients in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking in a video message on PTV news channel, she said the Indian government had imposed harsh and discriminatory restrictions in held Kashmir and shifting ailing Muslim prisoners from one jail to another, which was condemnable.

She said the Indian government as well as the Kashmiri administration would be held responsible if anything untoward happened to detained Kashmiri leaders, adding it would be tantamount to extrajudicial murder.

Malik said world human rights bodies should take strict actions and ask India to lift restrictions in the held territory.