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Amnesty Urges India To Release Kashmiri Jihad Leaders
India Rejects Resumption Of Dialogue With Pakistan
NEW DELHI, April 5 (AFP) – Amnesty International called on India Wednesday to release 22 Kashmiri Islamist leaders detained for up to six months without charge under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
The appeal by the London-based rights body followed the release Tuesday in New Delhi of three leaders, who were among 25 members of the Freedom Conference – an amalgam of two dozen Islamist political groups – arrested in September and October last year.
An Amnesty statement urged the government to "either immediately release the other 22 leaders or charge them with a recognizable criminal offense and try them in a regular court of law."
The Conference members were rounded up last year for organizing boycotts in Kashmir of India's general election.
"The arbitrary arrest and detention of those peacefully voicing dissent appears to have become more widespread in Kashmir, with the PSA increasingly being used to punish those who speak out against the government," said Amnesty.
"As most people detained under the PSA are denied access to lawyers and family members, they also run a high risk of being subjected to torture and ill-treatment."
The 1978 act is the main law relating to preventative detention in Kashmir and permits administrative detention without trial for a period of up to one or two years.
Amnesty highlighted the plight of top Conference leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, 33, saying he was being denied regular access to specialized medical attention, despite suffering from a heart condition and high blood pressure.
The three Conference leaders released Tuesday – Syed Ali Geelani, Abdul Gani Bhat and Moulvi Abass Ansari – said they had been prevented from returning to Kashmir.
The timing of their release appeared aimed at easing tensions in Kashmir, which have heightened considerably following the police shooting of seven peaceful Muslim protestors on Monday.
Home Minister L.K. Advani said Wednesday that the release was an initiative towards peace and normalcy in Kashmir. It was not a casual action but an outcome of a joint decision by the center and the state government," he said.
An armed Islamic movement against Indian rule in Kashmir has claimed more than 25,000 lives since 1989. The Freedom Conference is the political wing of the resistance movement.
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