Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting for release of detainees and political prisoners in jails both in and outside Jammu and Kashmir, saying that most countries have released prisoners on parole in view of the alarming COVID crisis.
She said the entire country has been engulfed by a deadly second wave of COVID-19. "Unfortunately, the health infrastructure has completely collapsed and the harrowing images of stranded COVID patients gasping for breath have shocked us all," she said.
"The sense of helplessness is so acute and pervasive that the living are quite literally suffocating to death while the dead suffer indignity even after losing the battle to this virus. Families have watched on helplessly as they struggle to even accord their loved ones the proper dignified last rites of passage," she added.
The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said perhaps the only silver lining in this tragic time is how Indians cutting across religious and regional lines are coming together to lend each other a helping hand.
"One does not wish or want to politicise the human tragedy that has befallen us all. It's an unprecedented humtarian crisis that doesn't discriminate on the basis of caste, colour, religion or social status and has affected everyone," she said in the letter.
The PDP leader said that worrying reports about prisoners dying due to COVID-19 and subsequent lack of medical attention have been trickling in and at a time when the system is struggling to cope with this horrendous situation, lives of prisoners may be the least priority.
"As far as Kashmir is concerned, it is no secret that hundreds, or maybe thousands of detainees and political prisoners arrested since August 2019 continue to languish in jails both in and outside J-K. Most of them are detained under preventive laws and don't face any prosecution. Many continue to be held event after courts granted them bail. Most recent reminder of the lurking threat to their lives is Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai's death who lost his life because he contracted COVID in jail and was deprived of medical care", she said.
"Throughout the world, most countries have released prisoners on parole in view of the alarming COVID crisis. A democratic and civilised country like India shouldn't drag its feet and must release these detainees immediately so that they can return home at a time when life feels so threatened," she added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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