Mufti, Omar suggest each other to meet Amit Shah over plight of prisoners of Jammu and Kashmir

Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said that prisoners from the Union Territory are suffering in jails and were not given their constitutional and legal rights of parole and bail.

She urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take an all party delegation to different jails across the country to assess the situation and plight of the prisoners from J&K. She took out a protest outside her office in Srinagar to press for the demands, but was intercepted by the police and was not allowed to move towards the city centre Lal Chowk.

The People’s Democratic Party chief said that this was a humanitarian issue and Abdullah should raise it before the union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.


“Our undertrials are suffering in jails. Leaders like Shabir Shah and Jama’at chief are suffering from acute illnesses. Our prisoners are not given remission or bail, especially in UAPA cases,” said Mufti adding, “Instead rapists and murderers like Gurmeet Singh manage to get frequent paroles.” The PDP leader said that if the CM has any problem in taking an all party delegation to different jails across the country, then he should take a team of his ministers to visit those jails.

“I want to tell Omar that we are in opposition and cannot do anything. But he can. I swear this is not NC-PDP politics, but about those in jails. He should meet the Home Minister and tell him to get those prisoners languishing in the jails outside J&K to the jails here,” she added. Mufti said the party wanted to raise the issue peacefully but were stopped to even do that. “The way police stopped us had the police and intelligence agencies shown the same zeal in arresting those involved in the Pahalgam attack, war would not have started with Pakistan,” said Mufti.

Senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also stated that highlighting the plight of prisoners is the moral responsibility of every Kashmiri. “A joint effort in this regard by all is the need of the hour, if we really want to help them. Playing politics even on this humanitarian issue will be a shame,” said Mirwaiz, adding, “I appeal to all the political and social groups and members of civil society to come together and let us jointly strive for the release of prisoners.”

The J&K CM in response to a query of Mufti’s assertions said that there was nothing wrong in the protest, but the decisions on the matters of security are taken in Delhi. “We all are worried about it. But nothing can happen by doing anything in Srinagar. The decisions on the security in J&K are taken in Delhi, in the Home Ministry. So, better is that she should go to Delhi, meet the Home Minister and raise this issue with him the way we did,” said Abdullah.