Release Kashmiri Political Prisoners Languishing In Jails

Release Kashmiri Political Prisoners Languishing In Jails

By Dr. P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

17 June, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference has appealed to the people to observe solidarity with the Kashmiri prisoners on Friday the 17 June, 2016. Geelani has called the continuous imprisonment of pro-freedom leader Masarat Alam Bhat since 2010 as extremely cruel. He lamented the silence of the State Government as also of the State High Court, which could have taken suomotu action for getting MasaratAlam released.

He has demanded:

i. Release of all the political prisoners including the pro-freedom leaders before Eid.

ii. That status of the pro-freedom leaders who are serving life imprisonment and other political prisoners lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi as well as a Kashmiri detainee in Gujarat Jail should be accepted as that of political prisoners and has demanded their unconditional release.

iii. Release of dozens of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leaders arrested under preventive detention.

iv. Provision of basic amenities to prisoners as also treatment of ill prisoners in the jails.

Geelanihas appealed to the human rights organizations to ensure the release of Kashmiri prisoners.The aforementioned demands are just, long-standing and democratic. This is the bare minimum that the Jammu and Kashmir (J & K) state authorities and the High Court could ensure as a first step.

Continued incarceration of Masarat Alam in jail, inspite of bail

The significant and eye-opening pronouncements made by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Budgam, MasaratRohee while granting bail to MasaratAlamon 25 May, 2016 in a case (FIR 92/2015)registered at police station Budgam against him for ‘sedition’charges are a slap on the face of the authorities.Masarat Alam in this particular case was arrested in April 2015 after Pakistani flags were raised at Geelani’s rally.

The court observed:

* “In toto, 27 cases have been registered and if 90 days are given to each case, it would amount to 6 years and 7 months before the accused sees the light of the day from the dungeons.”

* “If the accused is anti-national and detrimental to the society and public at large, let the state discharge its duty by bringing the guilty to book so that they are punished suitably as per the mandate of law.”

* “However, despite the fact that the State alleges the accused to be anti-national, the right of the accused as guaranteed by the constitution under principles of natural justice cannot be denied indefinitely.”

* “If such a trend is sanctioned by the courts of law and the law interpreted in that manner, the way Ld CPO seeks the same to be interpreted, the might of state with an approximate number of more than 200 Police stations throughout the state of J & K with every Police station registering an FIR, granting 90 days of exhaust remand in each FIR, before the accused reaches the Court of law trial, he would have already spent 49 years and 3 months in jail.”

* “Thus negating the whole presumption of innocence of the accused as guaranteed to him by the law. Such acts of the state not only weaken the criminal justice system but also create an alienation between the state and its population where it become 'us' and 'them' and an individual no longer feels himself to be the part of the state.”

* “The fact remains that the accused is involved in the offences as alleged in the FIR, but the accused has not only been detained for 90 days but many 90 days commencing from 15.4.2015 and is under continuous detention ever since without trial despite a high powered SIT investigating the same which is not likely to conclude within reasonable time, yet the fact remains that the lodgment of the accused in Baramulla Sub-Jail is sufficient enough to substantiate that out of 27 FIRS only two are under investigation in District Baramulla.”

* “The custody of the accused being requisitioned by Police station Shaheedgunj, though the Police station Shaheedgunj do not require him for custodial interrogation in Police remand but seek his detention in judicial custody is enough to hold that accused is not required by the investigation but needs to be incarcerated in judicial custody, extra judicially.”

* “This kind of custody in the opinion of this Court amounts to extra judicial custody which cannot be sanctioned by any legal means. Therefore, keeping the above facts, observation and submission in view the accused is named in case FIR No. 92/2015 of Police station Budgam is released on bail.”

The CJM had observed that even cases since 1999 and 2006 were still pending investigation; and that only in 12 out of 27 cases challan has been produced while 15 cases are still being investigated.

Masarat Alam, of course, continues to be in jail inspite of the bail order. In any case the aforementioned quotes from the judgement delivered by the CJM should be made compulsory reading for all law students, lawyers, judges, social and political activists and all those who cherish freedom. One has to constantly remind oneself that these quotes are not from a Report of Amnesty International/ Human Rights Watch/ civil liberties and democratic rights bodies in India; nor are these quotes the outpourings of “decadent communists”. So something must be fundamentally wrong with the criminal justice system which permits scores of cases to be filed and kept pending against political activists even as all the norms and procedures of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence are smashed to smithereens. The political dispensation in Delhi needs to be reminded that it is not just the likes of MasaratAlam who are on trial; in the final analysis it is the higher judiciary as also the Indian democracy which is on trial; and the whole world watches with concern. Even the fourth pillar of Indian democracy viz the so called free press gets ultra-nationalistic and indulges in biased and untruthful reporting.In fact the mainstream journalists in India covering Kashmir function no different from the American embedded journalists covering the war on Iraq, Afghanistan and so on.

Masarat Alam has spent more years in jail than Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi did individually during the freedom struggle. The British dealt with these establishment freedom fighters as befits their status and role as freedom fighters. The Indian state treats the frontline leaders struggling for right to self-determination of Kashmiri people with utter contempt. Recently the Prime Minister of India referred to overcoming the “hesitations of history” while delivering his speech at the joint session of U.S. congress on 8 June, 2016. Could he extend this doctrine in relation to Kashmir and resolve the long standing issues? As a first step he could instruct the BharatiyaJanata Party in J & K – a coalition partner with the Peoples Democratic Party– to ensure that Kashmiri political prisoners are released.

[The writers are members of PIL Watch Group and have been campaigning for ‘bail not jail’. Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com]

As the judgment is not available on the website of the court till date, the quotes from the judgement are reproduced from the newspaper Greater Kashmir issue dated 15 June, 2016.

US-Modi Bonhomie

US-Modi Bonhomie

By Abdul Majid Zargar

15 June, 2016
Countercurrents.org

There has been a steady increase in Indo-US bonhomie ever since Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister of India. During his two years in chair, he has taken long strides than his predecessors in reducing the distance and increasing convergence in the strategic perspectives of the two supposedly democracies . During his latest visit to US, Modi has received a thunderous applause to his forty five minute speech to the joint session of US congress during which he is reported to have received extraordinary number of clappings & standing ovations.

The rousing reception begs a very important question. Has the US, which positions itself as a champion of human rights around the world ,forgotten or forgiven Modi for his complicit role in killing minority Muslims thus committing grave crimes against humanity during Gujrat riots 2002 .The question is important because in its answer lies the future survival of democracy as a best model which respects human rights. I will explain that a little later.

That Modi’s Complicity in Gujrat riots is well researched & adequately documented. The latest addition to the existing implicative material on the subject is Rana Ayub’s book ‘Gujrat files- Anatomy of a cover-up’. Prior to that Manoj Mitha’s book ‘The fiction of fact finding’ & Sreekumar’s Book ‘Gujrat behind the Curtain’ have provided ample evidence of Modi’s involvement through his acts of omission & commission. Not to speak of Teesta Setalvad’s material compiled after untiring efforts and Tehlka’s sting operations conducted in 2007.In an open letter published in ‘the Guardian’,(10th April 2014)most respected global intellectuals of Indian Origin held him culpable for the massacre of Muslims under his watch when he was chief Minster in 2002 According to Ashish Nandy, India’s most reputed political psychologist & social theorist, ‘The Gujarat pogroms were not just about the number of helpless victims killed (over 3000) and rendered homeless (several hundred thousand). It was about the sheer planning, the brutality, the maniacal genocide that was perpetrated over a population for days on end. Narendra Modi, according to Nandy, did not only shamelessly preside over the riots and act as the chief patron of rioting gangs, the vulgarities of his utterances have been a slur on civilised public life. His justifications of the riots, too, sound uncannily like that of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president and mass murderer who is now facing trial for his crimes against humanity. I often wonder these days why those active in human rights groups in India and abroad have not yet tried to get international summons issued against Modi for colluding with the murder of hundreds and for attempted ethnic cleansing. If Modi’s behavior till now is not a crime against humanity, what is?

Following Gujrat riots in 2002 & widespread allegation of State complicity, a US Commission for international religious freedom (USCIRF) established that Gujrat Chief Mister, Modi was linked to communal riots in a significant way. It also noted that Modi’s Minsterial Colleauge, Maya Kodnani fully involved in the massacre of Muslims was actually a fall Guy for Narendra Modi. Following its findings, the Commision recommended a US Visa ban for Modi. The Chair person of the Commision ,Katrina Lantos Swett went further to recommend India to be placed in Tier 2 Countries on religious freedom along with that of seven other countries Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia. Tier 2 countries are those Countries where religious persecution and other violations of religious freedom are either promoted with State connivance or tolerated by the governments in chage

According to a report of British High Commission in India, the pogroms in Gujarat in 2002, “had all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and that reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims is impossible while the chief minister,Modi remains in power.”The report further said, “far from being spontaneous” this massacre, “was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government headed by Modi.”

Now reverting back to the earlier question, it is important to seek an answer as to whether Modi has been forgiven or his crimes relegated to the dustbins of history? America may say that Modi is an elected chief executive of a largest democracy and it was for Indian people to punish him through electoral calculus or for the Indian judiciary to indict him. But that is a specious argument to say the least. Immediately after riots, Modi won elections in Gujrat and irrespective of that favorable result, Modi was treated as a persona-non-grata by America and his entry to USA banned. So taking shelter under this alibi will be self defeating for USA. Should it take the Indian judiciary argument, then none better than USA knows that the whole criminal Justice system in India is slow & heavily loaded against minorities. And even the remote chances of getting justice are scuttled by influencing and/or threatening honest Judges & bureaucrats. Does USA need to be reminded that for anti Sikh riots of 1984, no political heavyweight has been punished so far by Indian system? Recently an Indian Court acquitted all the accused policemen (Provincial armed constabulary personnel) responsible for murdering 42 innocent Muslims of a non-descript UP village in broad daylight in 1987.

And if it is presumed that USA has forgiven Modi, then we can only mourn the sad demise of core values from American hearts. Slobodan Milosevic must be wondering in his grave for the differential treatment he got at the hands of those whose priorities are guided more by revenue & market valuations. Whatever be the case, a caveat is in order. America by its odious behavior has undermined & debased the structure of democracy, it so enthusiastically promotes in rest of the world.

(The author is a practicing chartered Accountant. E mail: abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com)